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D TOiUtiiY PlTBI.JRnRR, 13 SPRUCE ST, NEW ^ORK, 



HISTORY 



AMERICAN CONSPIRACIES 



A RECORD OF 



TREASON, INSURRECTION, REBELLION, &c. 



UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, 



FROM 1760 TO 1860. 



BY ORVILLE J. VICTOR, 

ACTHOE OF "HISTORY, (CIVIL, POLITICAL AND MILITARY,) OP THE SOUTHERN 
REBELLION." 



JAMES D. TORREY, PUBLISHER, 

13 SPRUCE STREET. 



Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1863, by James D. Torrey, in the Qerk's 
Office of the District Court of tlie United States for the Southern District of New York. 






PREFACE, 



The United States of America, in attaining their exalted position 
among nations, have not escaped local and national disorder. 
The history of Colonial times is rife with religious and political ex- 
citement, frequently associated with violence and revolution; the 
Aborigines have conspired, in numerous instances, for the extermina- 
tion of their white foes ; the Continental Confederation, accompanied 
with alarming distempers, was saved from a conflict of common- 
wealths only by the adoption of the Federal Constitution; and the 
Federation which made us one people has not accomplished its ends 
without occasional insurrections against its consolidated authority. 

In this volume I have embraced the story of such conspiracies, in- 
surrections and popular commotions as directly or indirectly aflected 
the order of society, the destiny of States, or the political institu- 
tions of the Republic. The table of contents will show what I con- 
ceive to have been such events. Those minor or purely local dis- 
turbances, which, though exciting episodes in State or Colonial 
history, yet contributed nothing of change to the order of historic 
events, I have passed with but a brief allusion in the Preliminary 
Chapter. 

Having for several years contemplated this work I entered upon 
its prej)aration with a good store of authorities, among which were 
several volumes of documents, letters, memoirs, &c., not accessible to 
the ordinary inquirer. These, with the generally available works on 
American History, have enabled me to produce what I hope will 
prove a satisfactory narrative of the interesting and important events 
considered. 

In the composition of the chapters on Pontiac's Indian Conspiracy 
and the Paxton Riots I freely drew upon the thoroughly exhaustive 



viil PREFACE. 

work of Francis Parkman, Jr. His "History of the Conspiracy of 
Pontiac," is a very able and painstaking production. It has afforded 
to a class of scribblers for popular magazines matter for many an article, 
though the reader was not permitted to know who was plundered for 
their edification. The work of Mr. P. is one of the most valuable of all 
late contributions to American History. 

The chapter on Wilkinson's Conspiracy doubtless will excite astonish- 
ment in the reader's mind — it being so much at variance with the popu- 
lar estimates of the man and his services. I have studied the matter 
well, and conceive that the record here presented will stand the test of 
critical examination. If it does, then General James Wilkinson be- 
comes one of the dishonored among our public characters. 

Genet's Conspiracy and the Alien and Sedition Troubles I have treat- 
ed as exhaustively as the subjects seemed to demand. If the version 
presented reflects discredit upon the Anti-Federal faction, it is because 
the proofs against Genet and his coadjutors, of a design to paralyse the 
administrations of Washington and Adams, if not to overthrow the 
Federal Constitution, are, to our apprehension, incontestible. It is not 
an agreeable task to discrown men whom the public long has worship*- 
ped ; it is, indeed, presumptuous, even to attempt ; but, no writer is 
warranted in sui^pressiug truth, from personal considerations. If what 
is here set forth is not sustained in its assumptions and conclusions let 
it be put aside for what is better testimony, if such can be produced. 

Of Aaron Burr's Conspiracy I have sought to present the most complete 
narrative yet published. Having access to a great mass of evidence bearing 
upon the subject, I have not hesitated to use whatever came well au- 
thenticated, no matter whom it affected. The reader will see that 
" pure and disinterested patriot," General James Wilkinson, in a new 
role — that of defender of the integrity of his country. Thepaper will 
be found to embrace much incidental matter of interest not hitherto 
presented in connection with the operations of Burr. 

The Hartford Convention Conspiracy and the New England Discon- 
tents are subjected to a somewhat extended exposition. Their intimate 
and intricate relations to the general history of the country compels a 
constant recurrence to national aflaii's if the causes and effects of the 
discontent are to be clearly set forth. No local or partisan treatment 



PREFACE. IX 

of the sul)ject can do it justice. I liave endeavored to present it in its 
true liistoric light. 

The Negro Insurrections of Denmark Vesey and Nat Turner are j^ain- 
ful chapters to peruse, yet they possess a profound interest for all who 
care to understand the workings of the American slave system. In 
spite of a studious suppression of testimony by the authorities and 
the press, enough has transpired to show that the institution of invol- 
untary servitude has rested upon the bosom of a volcano. 

The Nullification Rebellion has had so much new light thrown upon 
it by recent events as to reduce its hitherto argumentative, and there- 
fore undefined, position to the condition of absolute demonstration. In 
the Secession Revolution we have the results of the asserted " rights" 
upon which the Nullification theory was founded, and therefore have 
the exact relations of Calhoun's theory and acts to society and to gov- 
ernment perfectly established. I have given the theme a full con- 
sideration, vie-wing it from a National rather than a local or State 
stand-point. Several hitherto unpublished documents are cited in 
this paper. 

The story of the sectional struggle in Kansas is given at much length. 
It is the first exposition of the kind yet offered — being a complete 
political and social record of the matter. Like the first South Caro- 
lina rebellion, the struggle in Kansas finds a fresh and conclusive 
comment in the Secession Revolution. We see in its incipient stages 
the plans, not of patriotic men but of partisans bent upon perpetuating 
Southern predominance in the upper house of Congress ; in the pro- 
gress of the struggle we witness the humiliation of a National Exe- 
cutive and the triumph, for a season, of violence and bad faith; in 
its close we behold the futile efforts of Southern factionists in Congress 
to override their own asseverated principles of the rights of settlers in a 
Territory to form their own institutions. In the failure to make Kansas 
a Slave State the veil was flung aside. Southern arrogance became 
Southern treason. The struggle in Kansas was the culminating point 
in the Congressional history of slavery : it initiated the conflict between 
the two principles of freedom and servitude which deluged the laud in 
blood. 

The paper on John Brown's Conspiracy is as complete as it is possi- 
ble at this time to make it. There is so mueh bad feeling existing to- 

2 



X. PREFACE 

ward those against wliom he conspired and who succeeded in hanging 
him, that it is scarcely possible to do both parties justice. We have 
endeavored to present the subject in its true light — confining our record 
to those authenticated facts and incidents from which a correct judgment 
is to be formed. 

In the Appendix will be found documents quite important to the 
student who would sift to the bottom each case presented. 

That this volume is free from errors of fact or mistakes of judgment 
is not to be assumed. What works on American history can claim such 
positive qualities ? What has been my aim is to present such a record 
as will bear the closest scrutiny, and to lay before the intelligent reader 
facts upon which he may form his own conclusions, and sustain or re- 
pudiate the opinions expressed by the author. No historian can hope 
successfully to suppress testimony, nor to pervert its interpretation ; 
and he who writes for the present or for the future must be studious for 
the truth if he would retain the respect of friends and command the at- 
tention of foes. O. J. V. 

New York, Nov. 1st, 1863. 



CONTENTS. 



papeb. page. 

Peeliminart Chapter 24-32 

1763—1765. 
I. Pontiac's (Indian) Conspiracy .... 33-102 

1763—1764. 
n. The Paxton Riots 103-114 

1780. 
m. Benedict Arnold's Conspiracy. . . . 115-145 

1780. 
rV. Revolt of the Pennsylvania Brigade . . 146-152 

1785—1788. 
V. " State of Frankland" Insurrection . 153-164 

1784—1785. 
VI. Shay's Rebellion .... . 165-180 

1787—1790. 
VIL Wilkinson's Western Conspiracy . . . 181-200 

1791—1794. 
Vin. Whiskey Insurrection 201-230 

1793—1794. 
IX. Genet's Conspiracy 231-244 

1798—1799. 
X, Alien and Sedition Troubles. . , . 245-270 

1806—1807. 
XL Aaron Burr's Conspiracy .... 271-325 

1809—1814. 
Xn. New England Discontents and Hartford Con- 
^ vention Conspiracy 326-372 

1822. 
Xin. Denmark Vesey's Slave Insurrection . . . 383-388 

1825. 
XIV. Georgia Indian Difficulties .... 389-392 

1831. 
XV. Nat Turner's Slave Insurxection . . . 393-408 



CONTENTS. 



PAPEB. PAGE. 

1832—1833. 
V XVI. South Carolina Nullification Insurrection . 409-444 

1837—1838. 
XVII. "Patriot" War 445-448 

1842. 
V XVIII. Dorr's Rebellion (Rhode Island) . . . 449-430 

1854—1858. 
^, XIX. Kansas-Nebraska Troubles 451-520 

1859. 
XX. John Brown's Consijiracy .... 521-546 
APPENDIX. Jefferson's Kentucky Resolutions of 1798 . 547 

Madison's Virginia Resolutions of 1798-99 . 551 

Madison's Defense against the charge of Nullification 553 
Jeflerson's Message on Aaron Burr's Conspiracy . 555 
Jackson's Message on South Carolina affairs . 559 
John Brown's Provisional Constitution . . 573 
Report of Select Committee on Brown's Conspiracy 577 

STEEL PLATE ILLUSTRATIONS. 

American Conspirators. Frontispiece. 

Biigraved by R. Thow. 

Pontiac Haranguing his Warriors. Title Page. 

Desigu hy Johu R. Cliapm. Engraved by John Rogers. 

The Fire Raft : Pontiac's Conspiracy 75 

Deeigu by Johu H Goater Elngraved by John Rogers. 

Revolt op Wayne's Brigade 149 

Design by Geo. G. While. Engraved by R Thew. 

TARRIlfG AND FEATHERING AN EXCISE OFFICER . . .213 

Design by H. W. Herrick. Engraved by John Rogers. 

Arrest op Aaron Burr, in Alabama 313 

Design by Geo. G. White. Engraved by John Rogers. 

Nat Turner and his Confederates in Council . . . 397 

Design by Felix 0. C. Darley. Engraved by John Rogers. 

MiSSOURIANS going TO KANSAS TO VOTE .... 469 

Design by Felix 0. C. Darley. Engraved by John Rogers. 

WOOD CUTS. 

Map of Detroit and vicinity, 1763 41 

Fac Similie of Arnold's Pass to Andre 129 

Andre's Pen Photograph of himself 137 



HISTORY OF AMERICAN CONSPIRACIES. 



PKELIMIIsTARY CHAPTER. 



In the production of this work, as stated in tlie preface, we 
have considered only those conspiracies, rebelHons, &c., which 
were more than local in their effects. Under this head we 
might, perhaps, have classed the several early Indian conspira- 
cies of Opechancanough, in Virginia, (1622,) King Phillip, in 
New England, (1675,) and of the Tuscaroras, in the Carolinas, 
(1712,) but deemed the story of Pontiac's greater combination 
of savage tribes against the whites sufficient to illustrate that 
feature of our history. 

Of local uprisings we have omitted to write of Clayborne's 
Maryland insurrection, 1745—16 ; of Nathaniel Bacon's seizure 
of the Government of Virginia (1676) ; of Jacob Leisler's usur- 
pation and reign in New York (1689-91); of the revolution 
against the old proprietory in the Carolinas (1719). Though 
events of interest these belong purely to colonial history. So, 
also, the war of the New Hampshire Grants (1774-75), in which 
Ethan Allen figured conspicuously; the boundary troubles 
bet ween 'Pennsylvania and Maryland, which resulted in the 
location of Mason and Dixon's line (1760-61) ; the " Old Court" 
and "New Court" emeutein Kentucky (1824-25); the "Tole- 
do War" between Ohio and Michigan (1835) — all, are very in- 
teresting episodes in the developement of States, but possess 
no National interest. 

Of Slave insurrections we have considered but those of 
Denmark Vesey and Nat Turner — these being the only con- 
spiracies among the helots of the South of which sufficient data 
8 



26 PRELTMINA-RY CHAPTER. ^ " 

exists for a satisfactory record. That there have been frequent 
■uprisings is not denied ; but, the alarm felt by citizens, courts 
and press of the South has induced a studied secrecy. It was 
policy to suppress comment, which could have resulted only in 
convincing the slaves of their power to produce terror. Some 
evidence is in existence regarding Gabriel's insurrection in 
Virginia during the year 1800. But, the data is meagre and 
indefinite. "For the past week," said a letter writer from 
Southeastern Virginia, "we have been under momentary ex- 
pectation of an uprising among the negroes, who have assem- 
bled to the number of nine hundred or a thousand and threat- 
ened to massacre all the whites. They are armed with desperate 
weapons and secrete themselves in the woods. God only knows 
our fate. We have strong guards every night under arms," 
This was the first general alarm sounded. Virginia, at that 
time, had in her bosom a powerful body of real anti-slavery 
men, among whom must be named Jefferson, whose " Xotes 
on Virginia" was then having a wide circulation, as also had 
Judge Tucker's " Proposal for the Gradual Abolition of Slavery 
in Virginia." There was, then^ a gradual drifting of the State 
toward a free constitution ; but, even that slight agitation of 
the question was the very incentive needed to inspire the slave 
with ideas and hopes of freedom. 

The insurrection above referred to was thoroughly organized 
and ready for explosion when discovered. Its first work was 
the capture of Eichmond. September 1st was the " day of de- 
liverance" chosen. The arrangements were for the blacks, 
under the general leadership of Gabriel, (a slave of Thomas 
Prosser, residing near Eichmond,) to gather by night, to the 
number of eleven hundred, at a brook six miles from the capi- 
tal. Then, having perfected their detail of disposition, the 
march upon Eichmond was to be made by right and left wing 
and centre. The first division was to seize the penetentiary, 
at that time containing several thousand stand of arms; 
the second division was to capture the powder house. Then, 
united, the right and left were to press on to the Capitol build- 
ing, and to retain it as their strong hold and central rallying 
pomt Meanwhile the centre column, having all the arms first 



PKRELIMINARY CHAPTER. 27 

provided by the blacks, was to enter the city and commence 
the work of slaughter. Not a white, save the French inhabit- 
ants, was to be spared^all were to be massacred, young and 
old, male and female. The French were to have been saved — 
it was then assumed by the anti-Jacobins or anti- Jeffersonians 
— because they were known to the negroes as friends of free- 
dom and equality ; but, it is not certain that the slaves had so 
clear a conception of the French revolution and the French 
party in America. All things at first conspired to render the 
plot a success : Eichmond was not even in a good defensive 
position ; it was easy of sjezjire. Nothing, it would appear, 
stood between the negroes and a realization of their horrid 
dream but secresy. That was not wanting until the last hour, 
when the plot was divulged in full by two slaves, and active 
steps were taken to ferret out its leaders. The alarm which 
succeeded was painful in the extreme. Much of the State soon 
was under arms. Governor James Monroe, "impressed with 
the magnitude of the danger, appointed three aides-de-camp." 
Patrols were established in the towns; on plantations strict 
surveillance of negro quarters was practiced. Arrests, brief 
hearings and executions quickly followed — from five to fifteen 
slaves being hung at a time. Gabriel eluded arrest for a while. 
Three hundred dollars were offered for his apprehension. He 
was captured at length in Norfolk — having lain secreted in a 
schooner's hold for eleven days — and was hung October 7tL 
Gabriel was a resolute fellow, young but sagacious, and won 
admiration even from his foes, because of his firm bearing. 
He resisted all efforts of the Governor and the authorities to 
discover the extent of the plot, its originators, and those impli- 
cated. Certain it is that the slaves as far east as Norfolk, fully 
understood the programme. The negroes in all the south- 
eastern counties, it is supposed, were ready to rise — so well de- 
vised and extensive were the arrangements. Only a portion 
of those suspected were arraigned. Said a cotemporary jour- 
nalist : " The trials of the negroes concerned in the late insur- 
rection are suspended until the opinion of the Legislature can 
be had on the subject This measure is said to be owing to 
the immense numbers who are interested in the plot, whose 



28 PRELIMIXARY CHAPTER. 

death, should they all be found guilty and executed, will near- 
ly produce the annihilation of the blacks in this part of the 
country." 

Gabriel's scheme quickly assumed a political aspect by the 
excessive partisanship of Democrats and Federalists. The lat- 
ter charged that the negroes, from hearing the former continu- 
ally ranting about "equahty," "fraternity" and "human rights,'' 
learned their first lessons in revolution and only proposed to 
enforce French revolutionary ideas. This was a severe but 
plausible application of the teachings of Democratic and Jaco- 
binical societies ; still, it was unjust to assume that even the 
French partisans were in any degree responsible for that upris- 
ing. Its secret lay in the eternal injustice of the institution of 
slavery ; and Gabriel, like Nat Turner and Denmark Vesey, 
but embodied the love of liberty which slumbers in every hu- 
man breast. Human nature is rarely so abased as not to love 
liberty. To attain it, he who is not willing to sacrifice life it- 
self is not worthy of the boon. It is the folly of wisdom which 
will not be wise that imputes a slave uprising to " bad teach- 
ings," to "incendiary pamphlets," &c. So long as there is a 
slave there will be rebellion, let the institution be ever so hu- 
manely ordered. But, brutally ordered as it has been, in the 
Southern States of the American Union, the wonder is that in- 
surrections have not been more frequent and bloody. 

The session of the Legislature which followed discussed the 
matter of the insurrection with closed doors. Nor, were the 
proceedings afterwards disclosed except in detached paragraphs, 
which it took thirty years to bring into consistency. From 
these we learn that steps were proposed for colonizing the blacks, 
thus reducing their numbers and opening a way for the eman- 
cipation and exportation of those deemed to be dangerous. 
Said John Eandolph, in one of his impressive harangues, in 
Congress: "the night bell is never heard to toll in the city of 
Eichmond but the anxious mother presses her infant more 
closely to her bosom." No doubt the people themselves were 
solicitous to banish from their midst such an element of terror. 
The Governor, by order and advice of the House of Delegates, 
entered into a secret correspondence with the President of the 



PRELIMINARY CHAPTER. 29 

United States upon the subject of securing a grant of land from 
the public domain upon which to colonize such negroes as 
gave trouble. Nothing came of this, at that time, though the 
matter still was agitated by the Virginians ; and, finally, on 
January 22d, 1805, the following resolution passed the Legis- 
lature in secret session : 

" Resolved — That the Senators of this State in the Congress of the 
United States be instructed, and the Representatives be requested to 
use their best efforts for obtaining from the General Government a com- 
petent portion of territory in the State of Louisiana, to be ajjpropriated 
to the residence of such people of color as have been or shall be eman- 
cipated, or hereafter may become dangerous to the public safety," 

It is somewhat remarkable that all this should have remain- 
ed a profound secret even to the great mass of Virginians. It 
was both a confession of the weakness and of the wrong of 
slavery, coming from those most guilty; inspired by their 
fears, they desired to secure their own safety by thrusting upon 
the General Government the care of such blacks as should be 
given their liberty. 

But, it was a secret movement out of which sprang nothing 
in results ; and the resolution above quoted was not exhumed 
until 1816, when the matter was revived in the Virginia Legis- 
lature, and the resolution reaffirmed in substance. To assist 
this emancipation scheme the American Colonization Society 
was formed, under the Presidency of Henry Clay. Out of that 
movement, also, sprang nothing. The main reason why these 
several efforts were barren of good fruits was the constant ap- 
preciation in value of negro " stock." As Virginia lands grew 
less productive, and the " first families" found their old baro- 
nial splendors circumscribed by limited incomes, breeding 
slaves for market gradually assumed the condition of a busi- 
ness, and, by the time the Colonization Society was ready to 
relieve the State of its superabundant negroes, that superabun- 
dance was disposed of " to go South," at prices making slave 
breeding very profitable. Hence, the end was accomplished 
of ridding the State of its most dangerous blacks, while, at the 
same time, their sale compensated for the constantly depreci- 
ating resources of the soil. According to the Richmond Inqui- 
rer, the annual income of Virginia from the sale of negroes was 



30 PRELIMINARY CHAPTER. 

equal to four millions of dollars. That j ournal very pertinen ily 
asked (when indicating the interest whicli Virginia had in the 
South, and to assist in deciding her course during the winter 
of 1860-61) what commerce of the North could compensate for 
the loss of that trade ? 

The Black Hawk (1881-32) war was, in no sense, a conspi- 
racy. It originated in a purely local difficulty, and, though it 
required considerable exercise of military force, it was little 
else than a whiskey outbreak. Our Government having ob- 
tained by treaty with Keokuk, chief of the Sac and Fox In- 
dians, title to their lands on the east side of the Mississippi 
river, opened it to settlers. Black Hawk, with a body of fol- 
lowers never exceeding six hundred — composed of the worst 
class of savages from several surrounding tribes — resolved not 
to leave Illinois territory, and kept his promise for over a year ; 
but, at length, was thoroughly subdued and banished to the 
West. 

The terrible riot in Philadelphia (1844) might, perhaps just- 
ly, have claimed a chapter in this volume ; but, to have given 
it place would have been a precedent for recording the story 
of the outbreaks in Pittsburg, Cincinnati, Boston, &c. The 
Philadelphia tragedy wets one of the most distressing and furi- 
ous storms of passion which ever disgraced this cou.ntry's an- 
nals — in some respects worse than the celebrated "draft" riots 
in New York city (1863). It sprung from the enmity of 
classes, «nd the animosity engendered by attempted political 
and social proscription. For several years prior to 1844 the 
foreign population of several of the Free States had become 
so powerful as to elect to office men of their kind. This as- 
cendancy a large class of American-born citizens proposed to 
counteract, by the formation of a political party whose cardinal 
principle should be the exclusion of foreigners from office and 
the restriction of the elective franchise to those born in the" 
country, or who had resided here for a term of twenty-one 
years. This party originated in Philadelphia, and there an- 
nounced its first public meeting. That meeting, held Monday 
afternoon, May 6th, 1844, was assaulted by the Irish, and a 
riot followed, in which one American was killed and eleven 



PEELIMINAKY CHAPTER. 31 

wounded. The excitement quickly intensified; soon Phila- 
delphia was lit up with incendiary fires. The reign of violence 
was supreme for two days, when, by a general arming of citizens 
and the introduction of the military, it was suppressed, A 
large number of buildings were burned or sacked, including 
several Eoman Catholic churches, a Roman Catholic female 
seminary, &c., &c. Nothing came of this terrible episode ex- 
cept an increase of party animosities, and of the feeling against 
the Irish population. Time, which soothes all distempers, drew 
a vail over the days of May ; but, it was years before those who 
had participated in the affair put aside their hates. 

Excitement which succeeded the Mexican War convulsed 
the entire country. It was the old conflict for slave or anti- 
slave supremacy. The war with Mexico was but a scheme for 
territorial aggrandisement. It resulted favorably, and the 
South bid fair to acquire permanent ascendancy through the 
Slave States to be formed of Texas, California and New Mexico. 
But, the North would not yield to a slave representation the 
vast domain acquired. During the years 1848-49-50 the 
country was deeply agitated. The struggle in the halls of Con- 
gress assumed a very angry front. Northern free soil mem- 
bers sought to carry the 36-80 line across the continent — to 
engraft the Wilmot proviso upon territorial organization by 
which slavery was to be denied any recognition in a territory. 
Utah and New Mexico were held at arm's length during this 
protracted struggle, and remained in a kind of independent 
yet chaotic state. California, however, filled by the avalanch 
of gold seekers and adventurers, at once had leaped into a Free 
State's estate, and came clamoring for admission. But, South- 
ern men resisted this turn of the tide, and refused to receive 
the new State with its free Constitution. The moment of peril 
had arrived. Section was arrayed against section, and neither 
would yield. It appeared as if the long predicted "final 
struggle" between slave and free ideas had come. At the mo- 
ment of angriest discussion, Henry Clay, " the gi'eat compro. 
miser," came forward with his plan of settlement (Jan. 29th, 
1850), providing that the people of the territories should de- 
termine their own wishes in regard to slavery ; stipulating for 



32 PRELIMINARY CHAPTER. 

the more efficient enforcement of tlie Fugitive Slave law ; de- 
fining the boundaries of Texas and New Mexico, and arrang- 
ing for the organization of new territories. This, like his pre- 
vious schemes of compromise, found men enough from both 
factions to carry it triumphantly through Congress. For a 
while the waters were stilled ; but, the hateful spirit of South- 
ern arrogance was bubbling beneath the surface, concocting its 
conspiracy to repeal the compromise of 1822. In 1854 the in- 
cendiary fires again were lit by the aggressors, when, suddenly, 
the country was convulsed as it never before had been. The 
movement assumed a social as well as political face, and there- 
fore was productive of most intense feeling. It proposed to 
make slavery national and freedom sectional — a proposition at 
which Northern men, without much distmction of party, re- 
volted. Only public distaste for slavery prevented the slave 
holder from " tarrying" with his slaves in Free States as long 
as he pleased — the Fugitive Slave law, under heavy penalties, 
making it the duty of every citizen to catch the slave should 
the poor wretch attempt to escape. But when, superadded to 
this deference to the " peculiar institution," came a demand to 
open all the vast region of the West to slave settlement, the 
prescription was too bitter for the lips of freemen. Yet, it 
was the effort of years to put away the unpalatable dose — so 
daring and persistent were the Conspirators against free insti- 
tutions. Their efforts resulted in the formation of the Repub- 
lican party, which, in 1860, elevated its candidate to the 
Presidential chair. Foiled in their desperate devices to retain 
their seventy years' supremacy — their "equilibrium" the par- 
tisans of slavery professed to call it — the Secession Revolution 
was inaugurated, to found a confederation of States whose 
corner stone should be the recognition of grades in society 
and the right of property in man. 



THE CONSPIRACY OF PONTIAC. 



Of conspiracies plotted by the Indians for the extirpation 
of the whites, that conceived by Pontiac, chief of the Ottawas, 
holds a prominent place. This savage seemed formed by 
nature for his bloody mission. Powerfal in person, com- 
manding in presence, resolute to an extraordinary degree, 
possessed of a rare gift of eloquence, sagacious and subtle as 
a beast of prey, he rightfally claimed the office of chief over 
many tribes and became the minister of vengeance for his 
race. 

Pontiac first appears on the stage during the French aiid 
English war, in which he participated as the ally of the 
French. He was at the battle of the Heights of Abraham, 
though it does not appear that the English victors received 
as prisoners any Indians. But, to what extent he co-operated 
against the English, is not known. His sympathies all were 
with the French, whose policy toward the Indians almost 
uniformly had been one of fostering care and kindness. 
From them he had imbibed an implacable hatred of the 
Briton, which proved an inspiration of the conspiracy soon 
to see the light. 

Following the fall of Quebec (September, 1759) one after 
another of the French possessions passed under the English 
sway. The trading posts and forts — Presque Isle (now Erie, 
Pa.), Miama (on the Maumee), Detroit, Michilmacinac, Green 
Bay, &c. — were occupied during 1760 by British troops. 
English traders, EngUsh laws, English insolence and Enghsh 
dishonesty quickly succeeded, to add fuel to the fires slum- 
bering in the savage breast 
5 



34 THE CONSPIRACY OF PONTIAC. 

Major Eogers was dispatcTied in September, 1760, from 
Montreal, by Sir Jeffrey Amherst, to Detroit and Michilmac- 
inac with two hundred men, who were to receive the capitu- 
lation of those posts and were to garrison the forts. Proceed- 
ing in row boats up Lake Erie he reached the mouth of 
Cuyahoga Eiver, in Ohio, November 7th, where the Major de- 
termined to encamp for a few days to rest his wearied men. 
He had scarcely lit his camp fires ere a troop of Indians ap- 
peared, proclaiming themselves the messengers of Pontiac, 
and, in his name, ordering the English to proceed no farther. 
Eogers demanded an interview with the chief, who soon ap- 
peared, accompanied by an imposing retinue of warriors. It 
was here that the great conspirator first came forward into 
the full light of history. From Eogers' minute account of 
the interview, we have a clear concej)tion of the Indian Attila. 
He approached with a haughty stride, gorgeously attired in 
hij5 savage cOstume, demanding at once, in an imj)erious tone, 
to know by what authority the British ofiicer presumed to 
enter the Indian country without permission or treaty. Eog- 
er.i was not a man without nerve. He stood as unabashed 
b(ifore that son of the forest as he would have done before a 
great oak, surging and roaring in the wind. To the barbari- 
an's demand Eogers answered that, the French having been 
Cd-nquered, he was commissioned to take possession of the 
upper forts — that his errand was one of peace, and his tarry 
at that point was for a brief season of rest. The chief answer- 
ed : "I stand in your path until to-morrow morning," and 
then departed. A deputation of warriors soon returned to 
offer the whites provisions, which were accepted and paid 
for. On the succeeding day a long conference was held, in 
which Pontiac conceded the English permission to proceed, 
offering them, indeed, a guard — a highly important act, as 
the way was beset with constant peril from savages still on 
the war path. 

Eogers re-embarked on the 12th of November, to find the 
savages in ambush at the mouth of Detroit river, ready to 
dispute his passage up stream. But, Pontiac's word scat- 
tei'ed the braves, and the fiotiUa proceeded in safety to their 



ENGLISH MISUSE OF THE INDIANS. 35 

first destination, to receive tlie capitulation of the French 
garrison, November 29th, 1760. The Wyandots and Potta- 
"watomies, encamped below Detroit, on either side of the river, 
witnessed the change of masters in silence, and seemingly 
acquiesced in the transfer without anger ; but they, like Pon- 
tiac's own immediate people — the Otto was and Ojibwas — 
preferred to await the issue of events. Had the English then 
been wise enough to have scanned the future, and just enough 
to have inaugurated a conciliatory, fatherly pohcy in dealing 
with the Indians, much if not all the human suffering and 
sacrifice which followed might have been averted. But then, 
as since. Great Britain acted less from the dictates of a broad 
humanity than from the impulse of commercial gairu * In 
fixing the degree of responsibility for what followed we should, 
in order to be just, weigh well the causes which impelled the 
savages to the war path. If Great Britain could have ap- 
peased those tigers of the American forests, panting for blood, she 
should have done it ; that she not only offered no conciliation 
but scorned and maltreated the untamed creatures, is to make 
her at least partially accountable for the conspiracy and its 
sad results. 

The mutterings of the impending storm were heard early 
in the summer of 1761, when Captain Campbell, command- 
ing at Detroit, was fully informed of a conspu'acy among 
the tribes along the lakes and in the Ohio valley to rise sim- 
ultaneously against all the forts, to massacre the garrisons, 
and then to combine and fall upon all settlements advanced 
over the eastern ridge of the Alleghanies. Expresses were 
at once dispatched to all the points menaced. This betrayal 
of their plot sufficed to postpone the attack for that season. 
Sir Jeffrey Amherst commanded extreme caution to be used 
at all posts, while the Indians were treated with a severity 
and suspicion which only served to strengthen their bitter- 
ness of feeling toward their foe. 

» See Ms. letter cited by Parkman in his " History of the Conspiracy of 
Pontiac." Bee also Chap. VII. of Parkman's work for citations of facts bearing 
on this point. Concurrent annals are full of proofs to substantiate the couclu- 
bioa htce given. 



36 THE CONSPIRACY OF PONTIAC. 

. This postponement gave time for farther conferenc'-^ 
among the tribes. Ambassadors from the Six Nations and 
Pontiac pierced to the Far West and to the South, everywhere 
receiving assurances of aid in any attempt to expel the Eng- 
lish. Pontiac himself, it is probable, visited the tribes con- 
gregated in what are now the States of Illinois, Indiana, 
Ohio and Michigan, for the combination of those nations be 
came complete during 1762, and the great leader's authority 
was quite generally acknowledged by them. 

These proceedings were kept profoundly secret. Those (mai 
ducting the plot dissimulated well. Crowds of men, women 
and children beset the forts and trading posts, eager for gun- 
powder, traffic and liquor ; but, even in their drunken bouts, 
nothing escaped their lips to betray their murderoiLS designs, 
A friendly savage would, at times, whisper a word of warning 
to some white who had won his confidence, and enough trans- 
pired to keep the English officers on their guard. The com- 
mandant at Fort Miami, on the Maumee river, was thus warn- 
ed early in the year 1763. Messengers from the East had ar- 
rived in his neighborhood to inform the tribes of the hour of 
uprising, and the Miamis had consented to murder the garri- 
son. The brave commander called the chiefs together, in- 
formed them of their bloody plot, and, by threats of dreadful 
retaliation, won from them a confession of its truth. This 
news was dispatched at once to Detroit, where Major Gladwyn 
held the chief command ; but, the Major was so lulled into 
security by the apparently friendly nature of the Wyandots, 
Pottawatomies and Ottawas surrounding his post, that he dis- 
credited the report of a general uprising. He was only too 
Boon made aware of his almost criminal disbelief. 

The treaty between England and France was not signed 
Tintil February 10th, 1763, while dispatches announcing its 
terms did not reach the Northern frontiers until the May fol- 
lowing. Up to that time the French had plotted with the In- 
dians, goading them on to the attack, and promising assistance 
in case of need. The savages were given to understand that 
King Louis favored their designs, and that assurance inspired 
a confidence which, otherwise, could not have been felt by 



THE COUNCIL AT ENCORES. 37 

Pontiac and his coadjutors. By the terms of the treaty France 
relinquished all claims to her North American possessions east 
of the Mississippi and north of the Ohio. This forever extin- 
guished any hope of French co-operation with the Indians, but 
its promulgation came too late — the dog feast and the war 
dance had been celebrated in an hundred villages, the war 
wampum had conveyed its final messages, and the Western 
woods swarmed with " braves" on the war path. 

Three tribes gathered, during April, 1763, at their camping 
grounds on the little river Encores, which flows into the De- 
troit river from the west, opposite the head of Fighting Island. 
Wj^andots, Pottawatomies and Ottawas were there, evidently 
en route from their winter hunt to reoccupy their old villages 
around and above Detroit. But, it was more than a chance 
gathering — it was a council convened for the decision of the 
great question of the combined attack upon every English 
post in the West. This council was held April 27th. It was 
attended by delegations of the tribes named, as also by Ojib- 
was, Miamis, Chippewas, Hurons and several Canadians. Pon- 
tiac was the ruling spirit. He was the conceded superior of 
all present ; the chiefs of all the tribes represented were pre- 
pared to accept him as their oracle.^ 

The council fire being lit, and the warriors seated around it 
in circling rows, the pipe passed from mouth to mouth until 
all had smoked. This ceremony over Pontiac entered the 
charmed circle to divulge his secrets and expound his views. 
His speech is represented to have been very violent against 
the English, whom he characterised as robbers, tyrants and 
settled foes to the Indian race. Their rapacity was that of the 
wolf, their mercy that of grizzly bears, their truth that of the 
fox. They treated the warriors like dogs, the women like 
slaves, the children like wild animals. The land given to the 
Indian they conceived to be theirs ; thus the aborigines were 
to be banished, their hunting grounds appropriated, their 

» S«e the Pontiac Ms. cited by Parkman, in the Appendix to his " History of 
the Conspiracy." Drake, in the composition of his work, " the History and Biog- 
raphy of the Indians of North America," does not appear to have known of tho 
eiutence of this interesting document. 



88 THE CONSPIRACY OF PONTIAC. 

sources of supplies all cut off and starvation was to do for the 
tribes what the deadly rifle and " fire water" left undone. 

This strain touched the wildest chord in the savage breast 
The great assembly, stoic in its apparent apathy, broke out into 
gi'unts and muttered vows of vengeance as the great warrior 
progressed in his word-painting of wrongs heaped upon the 
suifering race. That it was a master-piece of forest eloquence 
tradition tells us. Long after the orator had passed away, 
tribes to the far West preserved the memory of that wonderful 
harangue. 

But, this story of English rapacity and cruelty was only the 
peroration of the address. Having wrought upon the hearts 
of his fierce assembly until each seemed a cone of fire burning 
on the altar of vengeance, the wily chief informed his listeners 
of the French readiness to co-operate with the Indians for the 
expulsion of the intruders and robbers. A great belt of wam- 
pum was exhibited as coming to Pontiac from King Louis of 
France, in token of his mighty sympathy. The orator then 
represented that, even then, " big canoes" were on their way 
over the great waters to strike one more blow for the extirpa- 
tion of the hated foe. Would the race of red men sit silently 
by their fires and see the French struggle alone ? The spirits 
of their dead called them to the war path — their wrongs 
would be their food, their vengeance would be their strength. 

Then, to confirm the impression of his stormy eloquence, 
and to leave on the mind of each hearer such an apprehension 
of the whole subject as would never fail to arouse the savage 
instinct for blood, the chief told this remarkable tale;^ 

" A Delaware Indian conceived an eager desire to learn wisdom from 

• Parkman repeats this from the Pontiac Ms. How authentic that may be is 
only to be determined by its intrinsic evidence. Of the tale, Parkman observes : 
" Its precise origin is not easy to determine. It is possible that the Delaware 
prophet mentioned in a former chapter, may have had some part in it ; or it might 
have been the offspring of Pontiac's heated imagination during his period of fasting 
and dreaming. That he deliberately invented it for the sake of the effect it would 
produce, is the least probable conclusion of all." If the legend were divested off 
the rhetoric and polish given it by the scribe who wrote it out from the meagre 
notes of the Pontiac Ms., it would be more apparently Indian, and therefore more 
likely Pontiac's own invention for the sake of efifect. It was, we conceive, foi 
tffect solely that ft was introduced. 



THE Delaware's dream. 39 

the Master of Life : but, being ignorant where to find him, he had r&. 
course to fasting, dreaming and magical incantations. By these means 
it was revealed to him, that, by moving forward in a straight, undevi- 
ating course, he would reach the abode of the Great Spirit. He told 
his purpose to no one, and having provided the equipments of a hunter 
— gun, powder-horn, ammunition and a kettle for preparing his food — 
he set forth on his errand. For some days he journeyed on in high hope 
and confidence. On the evening of the eighth day he stopped by the 
side of a brook at the edge of a small prairie, where he began to make 
ready his evening meal, when, looking up, he saw three large openings 
in the woods on the opposite side of the meadow, and three well-beaten 
paths which entered them. He was much surprised ; but his wonder 
increased when, after it had grown dark, the three paths were more 
clearly visible than ever. Remembering the important object of his 
visit, he could neither sleep nor rest ; and, leaving his fire, he crossed 
the meadow, and entered the largest of the three ojjenings. He had 
advanced but a short distance into the forest, when a bright flame 
sprung out of the ground before him, and arrested his steps. In great 
amazement, he turned back, and entered the second path, where the 
same wonderful phenomenon again encountered him ; and now, in ter- 
ror and bewilderment, yet still resolved to persevere, he j)ursued the 
last of the three j^aths. On this he journeyed a whole day without in- 
terruption, when, at length, emerging from the forest, he saw before him 
a vast mountain of dazzling whiteness. So precipitous was the ascent 
that the Indian thought it hoj^eless to go further, and looked around 
him in desjiair : at that moment, he saw, seated at some distance above, 
the figure of a beautiful woman arrayed in white, who arose as he look- 
ed upon her, and thus accosted him : ' How can you hope, encumbered 
as you are, to succeed in your design ? Go down to the foot of the 
mountain, throw away your gun, your ammunition, your provisions and 
your clothing ; wash yourself in the stream which flows there, and you 
will then be prepared to stand before the Master of Life.' The Indian 
obeyed, and again began to ascend among the rocks, while the woman, 
seeing him still discouraged, laughed at his faintness of heart, and told 
him that if he wished for success, he must climb by the aid of one fooi 
and one hand only. After great toil and suffering, he at length found 
himself at the summit. The woman had disappeared, and he was left 
alone. A rich and beautiful plain lay Ijefore him, and at a little dis- 
tance, he saw three great villages, far superior to the squalid dwellings 
of the Delawares. As he approached the largest, and stood hesitating 
whether he should enter, a man gorgeously attired stejjped forth, and 
taking him by the hand, welcomed him to the celestial abode. He then 
conducted him into the presence of the Great Spirit, where the Indian 



40 THE CONSPIRACY OF PONTIAC. 



stood confounded at the unspeakable splendor wbicli surrounded him. 
The Great Spirit bade him be seated, and thus addressed him : 

" •■ I am the Maker of heaven and earth, the trees, lakes, rivers and all 
thmgs else ; I am the maker of mankind ; and because I love you, you 
must do my will. The land on which you lived was made for you, and 
not for others. Why do you suffer the white men to dwell among you ? 
My children, you have forgotten the customs and traditions of your 
forefathers. Why do you not clothe yourselves in skins, as they did, and 
use the bows and arrows, and the stone-pointed lances, which they 
used ? You have bought guns, knives, kettles and blankets from the 
white men, until you can no longer do without them ; and what is 
worse, you have drunk the poison tire-water, which turns you into fools. 
Fling all these things away ; live as your wise forefathers lived before 
you. And as for these English — these dogs dressed in red, who have 
come to rob you of your hunting grounds, and drive away the game — 
you must lift the hatchet against them. Wipe them from the face of 
the earth, and then you will win my favor back again, and once more 
be prosperous and happy. The children of your great father, the King 
of France, are not like the English. Never forget that they are your 
brethren. They are very dear to me, for they love the red men, and 
understand the true mode of worshii^ing me.' 

" The Great Spirit next instructed his hearer in various precepts of 
morality and religion, such as the prohibition to marry more than one 
wite, and a warning against the practice of magic, which is worshiping 
the devil. A prayer, embodying the substance of all that he had heard, 
was then presented to the Delaware. It was cut in hieroglyphics upon 
a M'ooden stick, after the custom of his people, and he was directed to 
Bend copies of it to all the Indian villages. 

" The adventurer now departed, and returning to the earth, reported 
all the wonders he had seen in the celestial regions." 

This relation is represented by those present to have cre- 
ated a profound impression. It struck at civilization by 
encouraging the savages to continue in barbarism — an idea 
not at all displeasing to them ; while it fostered their hopes 
of carnage by ordering them to wipe out the English — the 
dogs dressed in red — from the face of the earth. 

No record is preserved of other doings of the council, fur- 
ther than that the plan was adopted by which to effect the 
design of murdering the garrison and people of Detroit— the 
French only to be spared. The plan was for Pontiac, with a 
body of his best braves, to obtain admittance within the pali- 
sade under pretense of performing the calumet dance for the 



THE CALUMET DANCE. 



41 



edifioation of tlie garrison and Englisli commander, Major 
Gladwjm, whom they would honor, after their long absence 
during the winter. This was a preliminary for obtaining in- 
formation regarding the fortification and garrison. 

The council broke up at dusk. During the night the entire 
multitude of men, women and children struck their tents and 
disappeared, passing up the river to their old encampments 
near Detroit ; and when morning came it was to find the red 
skin host suddenly installed in their lodges within sight of the 
fort. Their coming and going always were so mysteriously 
conducted that their reappearance at that time attracted no at- 
tention. 




According to announcement Pon- 
tiac, with forty of his warriors, ap- 
peared on the 1st day of May (1763) 
at the gates of the palisades, asking 
admittance in order to perform their 
dance of peace before the command- 
ant and his men. The request was 
not granted without some hesitan- 
cy. Gladwyn, however, desiring to 
preserve the good will of the savages, finally consented to 
their appearance, when the savages, decked and plumed 
in their gayest apparel, entered, in single file, Pontiac at 
their head. They at once proceeded to the house of Glad- 
wyn, before which the dance was duly given, with all its abo- 
riginal absurdity. All the Indians were not present, however, 
to assist in the ceremony. Ten of them dropped out of line, 
as they filed thi-ough the streets, and while the remaining 
"^6 



42 THE CONSPIKACY OF PONTIAC. 

thirty were engaged in the dance, the spies were at work with 
their eyes, penetrating to all accessible corners of the fortifica- 
tion, noting every thing regarding the strength and efficiency 
of the garrison. When they returned to the band the dance 
•was discontinued and at once the entire forty filed out of the 
gates again. No suspicion had been excited. Gladwyn evi- 
dently regarded the visit as favorable to peace. The Indians 
found the garrison rather lax in discipline and comparatively 
weak in numbers. A surprise would accomplish all. 

Detroit at that time was simply a fortified post standing in 
the midst of a village said, by Eogers, to contain twenty five 
hundred inhabitants — an estimate which must have included 
all the garrison and regular inhabitants and the lodges of 
traders, half breeds, &c., beyond the fort, within which were 
gathered about one hundred small houses, barracks, a church 
and a council house. The fortification consisted of palisades, 
twenty -five feet in heigh th, planted in a gi-eat square, facing 
the river on the east, with bastions at each corner and block 
houses over the gateways. All were of wood, and not of a 
character designed to resist any formidable assault. The gar- 
rison consisted of but one hundred and twenty regulars and 
rangers, with about two score of traders and followers whose 
devotion was as little to be trusted as that of the Indian. 
Against this post and its feeble garrison the conspirator was to 
fling all the sti'ength of his braves drawn from four tribes.' 

The location of the several tribes around the post is indicat- 
ed in the map. Pontiac, as Chief of the Ottawas, dwelt with 
them, though it is stated his own wigwam was on the Isle au 
Cochon, lying in the Detroit river near Lake St. Clair. The 
near contiguity of the tribes rendered frequent intercourse 
easy. After the visit to the fort, already referred to, a second 
general council was ordered by Pontiac. It convened in the 
Pottawatamie village May 3d, and was attended by all the 

1 Tt is known that many of the French Canadians were privy to the proceed- 
ings of the Indians, and that numbers of them openly co-operated with Pontiac, 
supplying him with arms, ammunition, food, &c., during the siege. So many of 
them, indeed, were compromised by the afifair that Detroit village contained but 
five hundred and seventy-two inhabitants at the census of 1768 — five years aftei 
the siege. 



THE PLOT UNFOLDED. 43 

principal men of tlie three tribes, as well as by a number of 
delegates from other tribes, whose agents and runners were 
with Pontiac to receive his orders and to act in concert in the 
general warfare to be waged. Great circumspection was used, 
if we may credit the generally received accounts, to render the 
proceedings secret. Sentinels were stationed around the great 
council house, and no woman, nor warrior not entitled to a 
seat by the council-fire, was permitted to come within hearing 
distance. How the Ojibwa girl, hereafter mentioned, came to 
learn the secret of the session, we are not informed. 

The gi'eat Chief unfolded his arrangements at length to the 
war chiefs before him. He addressed his fierce assembly in 
all the fervor of his burning passions — rekindling in their 
breasts the flame which feeds only on human blood. We can 
well imagine the picture presented : an hundred savages seat- 
ed on the ground of a chamber but dimly lit by the fire in its 
centre — Pontiac in their midst, his tenible passions all aroused, 
thundering his poisoned words in their ears — the tiger-like fe- 
rocity of his hearers gleaming from each face as if already their 
tomahawks were reeking with the crimson flood: such was 
the scene which the chroniclers have drawn for our contem- 
plation. 

The plan divulged by Pontiac for the accomplishment of his 
scheme of murder was to demand an audience with Gladwyn, 
under pretext of discussing matters of great moment ; sixty 
warriors were thus to gain admittance to his council house 
where all his ofiicers would be assembled ; each warrior was 
to be armed with knife, tomahawk and a rifle, whose barrel 
had been cut short so that all might be concealed beneath the 
blanket; outside were to be distributed as many carefully 
chosen braves as could well gain admittance within the gates, 
who, at the signal of a war shout from the council house, were 
to fall upon the garrison and English inhabitants, murdering 
men, women and children indiscriminately; the audience being 
granted, Pontiac was to address Gladwyn, holding forth a wam- 
pum belt — the signal for attack being the moment when the 
belt was reversed in his hand, when each wamor was to choose 



44 THE CONSPIRACY OF PONTIAC. 

his victim and all whites present were to be butchered, at the 
same time giving the signal for their companions without. 

This hideous design would have worked perfectly, had not 
the secret been betrayed. The story runs that Gladwyn had 
for a mistress an Ojibway girl, who, when not with him, dwelt 
with the Pottawatamies, probably as the wife of one of the 
braves of that tribe. This woman became possessed of the se- 
cret ; and, as communication with the fort was unrestricted, 
she soon seized an opportunity to confer with Gladwyn. His- 
torians have turned this incident to account by weaving around 
it the story of love and love's devotion. One authority has it : 
" In the Pottawatamie village lived an Ojibwa girl who was the mis- 
tress of Major GladwjTi, and who loved him with the whole warmth of 
her generous soul. On the afternoon of the day, following the warning 
of M. Gouin, she came into the fort with a pair of elk-skin moccasins as 
a present to the commander. He noticed the saddened and pensive 
look she wore, but said nothing about it, and she withdrew. Still she 
lingered on the street, as if loth to depart until she had relieved her 
mind of some burden that was oppressing it. The sentinel, noticing 
her singular conduct, mentioned it to Gladwyn, who, recalling the girl, 
pressed her to reveal the cause of her trouble. She refused for a time 
to make any rejily ; but, after much urging and many promises not to 
betray her, she disclosed the whole murderous scheme. She said that 
on the morrow Pontiac, accompanied by sixty chiefs, would come to 
the fort. Each of these would have a short musket concealed under 
his blanket. Pontiac would make a si3eech as before mentioned, and 
at its close, oifer a peace-belt of wampum, holding it in a reversed po- 
sition. This would be the signal for the chiefs to shoot down the 
officers, and for the Indians upon the outside to commence their 
bloody work. The French were to be spared, but every Englishman 
was to be massacred." 

This coincides with Parkman's version, though it is discred- 
ited by the statements of the French Priests' diary upon which 
the "Pontiac Ms." is founded. That authority expressly avers 
that a man of the Ottawa tribe made the disclosure. The truth 
seems to us to be this : The wife of a trader, M. St Aubin, 
passed over to the Ottawa village on the afternoon of May 5th 
to find the Indians busily engaged in filing off their rifle bar- 
rels. This singular circumstance much excited her curiosity, 
and, from long association with the savages, she well knew 
it boded no good. Preserving a studied silence, as if she had 



gladwyn's suspicions aroused. 45 

not noticed the work, the woman returned to the village on 
the west side of the river, and at once reported the matter to 
M. Gouin, an old and influential trader. His suspicions were 
at once aroused. A dozen apparently trifling incidents were 
then recalled — all of which tended to confirm his alarm, and 
he hastened to the garrison to put it on guard against surprise. 
Gladwjn was, we are told, incredulous; the Indians were 
around the fort — men, women and children — daily, for gossip, 
barter and theft ; no sign had been given of a spirit of war ; 
hence he conceived an attack improbable. 

The circumstance, however, served to inspu-e him with mis- 
givings. The Ojibwa girl he probably questioned very close- 
ly, and doubtless obtained from her much to strengthen the 
impression made by M. Gouin's revelations. That she made 
some disclosures to him seems confirmed by the fact of Ponti- 
ac's having afterwards beaten her severely ; but, this he may 
have done on the mere suspicion of her having revealjxi some- 
thing to her " lover." Gladwyn unquestionably sought for in- 
formation through his spies ; that he obtained the detail 
from some warrior who was present at the Pottawatamie coun- 
cil is more probable than that he was saved by the devotion 
of his dusky mistress, who could, at best, have known very 
little about the great Chief's plans. 

Be this as it may, the Major was on the alert for the i>ro- 
mised visitation. His garrison was put in order for instant 
service — the men all being informed of the plot for their extir- 
pation, to stimulate them to sleepless vigilance. During the 
night of the 5th, an attack was apprehended, but none was 
made ; though the noise which came from the Indian camps 
gave evidence of unusual excitement among the savages. 

On the morning of May 6th a large number of canoes were 
discovered crossing the river above the fort. In each was seen 
two or three savages, but the deeply ladened craft, rowed with 
great care, proved its load to have been that of eight or ten men 
in each. The common around the fort soon swarmed with 
Indian women and children, as if nothing vmusual were on 
foot Evidence was given that the cut-throats were about to 
play a game of ball. This was part of the programme of mur- 



46 THE CONSPIRACY OF PONTIAC. 

der — to distract the attention of the whites. A few stalwart 
warriors, more respectable than the common herd, by being 
clad in blankets and tricked out in feathers, straggled up to 
the gates, and, one by one, were admitted. These were the 
fellows commissioned to do the outside butchery. They scat- 
tered to all parts of the village within the enclosure, as if hav- 
ing no concert or design in their movements. Even the ma- 
lignant passions which had swayed their hearts for weeks were 
so far subdued as to leave their bronze faces as immobile as 
those of basilisks. 

Pontiac passed over with his chosen sixty above the fort 
They came down the river path, in solemn single file, making 
direct for the fort, which they reached about ten o'clock A. M. 
Gladwyn at once had the gates thrown open, and the delega- 
tion entered. To the dismay of the Chief he beheld the men 
all under arms ; even the traders and attaches of the fort were 
in line, armed with cutlasses, pistols and muskets. Pontiac 
knew that his plans had been betrayed, and, for a moment, it 
is said, he was staggered with his consciousness of baflSed hope 
and the storm of his indignation. Yet, with the stoicism of 
his race, he quickly assumed a haughty indifference, and pass- 
ed through the lines of armed men to the council-house as if on 
a mission of honor. To the unflinching gaze of the soldiery 
the red skins returned the malignant fire of eyes scintillating 
like those of the rattlesnake when coiled for his stroke, while 
their ferocious faces, bedaubed with, vermillion, ochre, white 
lead and soot, served to add to the disgust which the English 
ever had entertained for the race. 

Arrived at the council-house the Indians at once were given 
audience. They entered to find the officers there to receive 
them. In addition there stood a file of regulars, armed for 
duty. This reception looked as if the English were ready for 
the work of slaughter, while the brace of pistols in each oflEicer'a 
belt and the sword at his side, did not reassui-e the treacherous 
visitors of their own safety. But Pontiac preserved his cour- 
age and his temper. "Why," he asked of Gladwyn, " do I 
behold so many troops in the street ? " The Major rephed that 
his men were under arms for discipline and exercisa His air 



THE SAVAGES BAFFLED. 47 

tf confidence was perfect Througliout the entire affair Glad- 
wyn acted with great courage and tact. 

At length the council was opened — a farce which must have 
galled the Indian's spirit like fire. To go through with it was, 
however, a necessity, if the Chief would not at once con- 
fess the truth of the English ofiicer's suspicions, Pontiao 
therfore entered upon his formal speech, holding in his ex- 
tended hand the wampum belt, which the conspirator had de- 
signed should play the important part in his proceedings. 
Before him sat and stood Gladwyn and his officers, with the 
bearing of men equal to and ready for the emergency — their 
eyes following the Chief's motions, and their hands ready to 
draw pistol at the first demonstration for reversing the belt. 
All this the orator perceived; he saw that even his pri- 
vate signal had been revealed ; he was baffled. The clang of 
aims, the roll of the drum, the file of soldiers at command, 
ta light him the propriety of prudence in demeanor as well as 
W3rds. His speech was simply one of professed good will : he 
desired to seal the bond of amity and friendship which the 
I] idians were solicitous ever should exist between them and the 
E aglish ; he asked that protection should be given them against 
traders and agents, and promised, in return, to make the tribes 
r« presented behave themselves well. During the utterance of 
tltcse lying sentences the hand fell to his side which held the 
b3lt, nor did he extend it again. Once, it is stated, it was 
raised, when Gladwyn instinctively grasped his pistols and 
Pontiac at once closed his hollow harangue, discomfitted and 
overawed. 

The commandant replied, in a tone and manner calculated 
to leave no doubt on the savage mind of his purposes. He 
assured them of confidence and protection as long as they 
merited it, but added that the first act of aggi-ession — the first 
attempt at treachery — would be followed by vengeance. He 
advised the Chief and his followers to prudence, and said he 
should hold them to a strict accountability for every outrage 
which might be perpetrated by their tribes. With this he de- 
clared the council ended, and the bafiled barbarians were forc- 
ed to retu'e unsated with camaga Their eyes gleamed like 



48 THE CONSPIRACY OF PONTIAC. 

meteors in a leaden sky ; their bedaubed visages could not 
conceal the commingled ferocity and disgust with which they 
were excited ; yet they had to choke their passions down and 
passed out in silence. Pontiac alone, the last to leave, re- 
marked to Griadwyn that he should soon visit him again, 
bringing along his squaws and children that they might all 
shake the hand of their English father. The Major made no 
reply to this, and the chief conspirator was permitted to de- 
part to concoct farther schemes of villainy. Why Gladwjm 
did not arrest him at once, along with his principle men, we 
are only left to conjecture. Doubtless he conceived it safest, 
considering his comparatively defenseless condition, to 
act leniently, nor do any act calculated to precipitate a war. 
His true course was to have held Pontiac as a hostage for ihe 
good behavior of his people, at least, until such time as Sir 
Jeffrey Amherst could place the garrison in a complete state 
of defense. 

In extenuation of the Chief's infamous conduct in this af- 
fair, his biographer says : " Here and elsewhere the conduct 
of Pontiac is marked with the blackest treachery; and one 
cannot but lament that a nature so brave, so commanding, so 
magnanimous, should be stained with the odious vice of cow- 
ards and traitors. He could govern, with almost despotic 
sway, a race as unruly as the winds. In generous thought 
and deed he rivalled the heroes of ancient story, and craft and 
cunning might well seem alien to a mind like his. Yet Pon-. 
tiac was a thorough savage, and in him stand forth, in strong- 
est light and shadow, the native faults and virtues of the 
Indian race. All children, says Sir Walter Scott, are natural- 
ly liars, and truth and honor are developments of later educa- 
tion. Barbarism is to civilization what childhood is to matu- 
rity, and all savages, whatever may be their country, their 
color, their lineage, are prone to treacheiy and deceit." All 
of which, we suppose, means that Pontiac was no more respon- 
sible for his misdeeds than a child. The same philosophy 
would cover the tiger and the cobra de capello with the cloak 
of innocence. The truth is, he was simply a monster, and, 
though a barbarian, should have been held to a strict account 



THEIR DESIGNS UNMASKED. 49 

for his acts. The Enghsh were not sinless in offering the pro- 
vocation which aroused the fiend in the savage heart. 

The warriors alh withdrew beyond the pahsades and quickly 
disappeared. Pontiac at once hastened to his island home, 
enraged, it is said, like a madman. But his mind was bent on 
the accomplishment of his scheme, and he determined to try 
the further use of treachery. With this object in view he 
repaired the next day to Gladwyn's quarters, accompanied by 
three warriors, bearing the pipe of peace, considered even by 
the savages an emblem sacred to honor and truth. His de- 
sign was to convince the commandant that some bad bird liad 
lied in his ears. "We stand before you.," said the Chief, "as 
friends of the English, whom we love. We have therefore 
come, as chiefe, to smoke the pipe of peace." Whereupon all 
smoked, and Gladwyn did not say anything to excite suspicion 
among the Indians that he distrusted their truth. Before 
taking his leave Pontiac presented the calumet to Major Canvp- 
bell — the second officer in command at the station — as a con- 
vincing assurance of his peacefal intentions. During the after- 
noon of that day a grand game of ball was played on the com- 
mon before the palisades, by the several tribes, in further evi- 
dence of their good will. While it was in progress, however, 
Pontiac and the leading chiefs were in secret conclave, arrajig- 
ing for the fartherance of their plot. All was then arranged 
for an outbreak on the morrow and the installation of a siege, 
by which it was hoped to starve the garrison into a surrender. 
Eunners were dispatched to the Southern and Western tribes, 
advising them of the attack, and urging them to the seizure of 
every post within their territory. 

Monday morning. May 9th, the common to the west of the 
fort swarmed with savages, led by Pontiac in person. Advanc- 
ing from their midst, with a large retinue of braves, he so- 
licited leave to enter. The gates were barred against him. ELe 
demanded to know why he was refused admittance, when 
Gladwyn himself answered that the Cliief alone might enter — 
not one of his followers, to which Pontiac replied that they 
wished to smoke with their English father. The commandant 
rejoined, in phrase more curt than courteous, that he wanted 
7 



50 THE CONSPIRACY OF PONTIAC. 

none of them. This answer was the end of peace. Seeing 
that his hypocrisy and treachery were of no more avail, tlie 
Ottawa Chief strode haughtily away. His anger and chagrin 
were intense. He made at once for the river and embarked 
for his island, to prepare for the war path. His own disap- 
pointment was the signal for blood-letting, since the entire, 
half-concealed crowd leaped up, "shrieking like devils," and 
rushed away toward the first house on the common, where an 
old English woman and her two sons dwelt. In a few mo- 
ments the scalp-yell warned the garrison that the work of 
death had, indeed, commenced. After this act the Indians 
hastened to their canoes, and the common was quickly desert- 
ed. Members of the Ottawa tribe hastened to the Isle au 
Cochou, where an Englishman named Fisher dwelt, in fancied 
Becurity, under the protection of the great Chief He was 
caught and scalped' — Pontiac being ,too much employed 
with his own wild thoughts to care for the defenceless man. 

These atrocities were simply the premonitory symptoms of 
the storm to follow. All that night the village rang with the 
war whoop ; the war dance was performed in several neigh- 
btrhoods ; paint and war adornments were brought into requi- 
sition to fit the braves for the war path. All night long the 
watchful garrison heard the appalling noise of preparation in 
the Indian villages. Sentinels strained eye and ear to de- 
tect the approach of the lurking cut-throats, whose general 
attack was expected momentarily. But no attack was made. 
The Ottawas were busy in transporting their lodges and pro- 
perty over the river, as ordered by Pontiac, that nothing but 
a path should stand between him and his enemies. Messen- 
gers came and went among the tribes. It is wonderful with 

> Several Canadians passed over to the island, the next day, to give the body 
of Fisher burial. It was found and interred. Visiting the spot on the third day, 
the Canadians discovered the hands of the murdered man projecting from the 
ground, as if in an act of supplication. A second burial was, therefore made ; but 
the spirit of the dead would not grant repose to his remains. Going to the grave 
on the fourth day the men were alarmed at beholding the hands again protruding 
from the earth. This inspired them with a fear of supernatural agency, and they 
hastened to their French priest, who went to the grave and with holy water and 
chaunt appeased the restless soul. A mass afterwards celebrated gave the body 
eternal quiet. 



THE ASSAULT ON THE FORT. 61 

wbat rapidity news of the outbreak flew over the country. 
The savages of Lake Superior and those dwelling in the Wa- 
bash and Maumee vallies seemed to have received and acted 
upon the orders of Pontiac within a few days after the first 
demonstrations of the 9th. A little party, comprised of Sir 
Robert Davers and Captain Robertson, with their Canadian 
guides, was coming down the St. Clair river. It was waylaid 
and the two officers murdered — the Canadians in all instances 
being spared. One of these mongrel Frenchmen came in with 
the sad news during the evening of Monday, and also brought 
the further report that a large body of Ojibwas from Saginaw 
had joined Pontiac, eager for slaughter. If the Ottawas were 
the tigers of the forest the Ojibwas may be called the hyenas : 
a more detestable tribe of human beings never existed than 
those fierce people of the Saginaw woods. 

Early dawn of Tuesday, May 10th, brought the expected 
assault As the rosy light began to streak the east there came 
from the woods around Detroit such a shout as might be cred- 
ited to the fiends of darkness. It was enough to appal the 
stoutest heart in the little garrison, for it proved that not a 
hundred but thousands of savages were on the war path thirst- 
ing for blood. A rain of rifle balls soon rattled against the 
wooden ramparts; soon every loop hole was rimmed with 
lead lodged in the logs by the unerring rifles of the assailants, 
who were distributed over the entire half circle of the fort's 
three points on the north, west and south. They lurked be- 
hind trees, stumps and logs, behind houses and barns, behind 
ridges in the ground and the crest of a hill to the west. From 
these coverts they fired in safety but without efiect. Seeing 
this they took shelter behind a cluster of buildings within 
short range of the palisades, from which they threw a severe 
fire. A hat or jacket thrust before the openings, or above the 
pickets, was sure to be riddled with balls. Gladwyn's men 
soon entered with spirit into the contest, while the traders and 
employees answered the Indian yell with notes of defiance and 
scorn. Little firing was done by the garrison, though all were 
alert to pick off any savage who showed himself An occa- 
sional shriek of agony told the death story for a " brave" who 



52 THE CONSPIRACY OF PONTIAC. 

had been imprudent enongli to betray enougb of bis person 
for a target. 

The commandant, resolved to get rid of tbe buildings too 
close to tbe fort for comfort, opened on tbem witb his cannon 
— of wbicb be bad two six-pounders, and one tbree-pounder, 
besides three bomb-mortars, but all of an inferior character. 
They served a good purpose, however, for the Indians stood 
in mortal fear of their terrible power. A few spikes were 
heated red hot and shot into the buildings referred to : in a 
few moments all were ablaze, and the red skins fled from them 
in the greatest terror. The sharp shooters were ready to pick 
off the rascals as they ran from cover, but, so odd was the sight, 
BO ludicrous the fright and distortion of the savages, that the 
marksmen could only laugh. 

Thus the morning wore away and Pontiac learned that such 
warfare could not accomplish any thing, further than to ex- 
haust his supply of ammunition and to weary his patience. 
He therefore withdrew his force to concert more vigorous and 
united action. By noon of Tuesday all was still again save 
the occasional crack of the rifle of some brave still watching 
for his victim. This cessation led Gladwyn to think the affair 
some sudden outbreak only, which negotiation could reconcile; 
and, as he was in want of supplies for any siege which might 
be made, he resolved to open communication with Pontiac — 
hoping to obtain some corn if not any satisfactory explanation 
o:^ the hostility shown. The Canadians, being neutrals, afford- 
ed a ready medium of intercourse with the Chief During 
the afternoon La Butte, the French interpreter, accompanied 
by Chapeton and Godefroy, two old Canadians of good repute 
with the Indians, made his way up to the Ottawa village, then 
located only one mile and three-quarters away, over what is 
now called Bloody Eun — a small stream emptying into the 
Detroit river just below the Isle au Cochou (now called Hog 
Island). These men were received by Pontiac without any 
show of anger, and their interview soon gave promise of such 
good results that La Butte made his way back to the fort to 
report the good tidings. Eeturning to the Ottawa village 
again he found the two Canadians hopeless : Pontiac was im- 



BETRAYAL OF MAJOR CAMPBELL. 53 

movable as an oak, and refused every proposal for terms of 
peace, througli professing to desii-e it. A conference of chiefs 
was finally held, when Pontiac declared their wish for a con- 
ference with their "English father" — mentioning Major Camp- 
bell, for whom the savages entertained a real respect. This 
proposal was laid before Gladwyn. Knowing so well the 
treacherous nature of Pontiac he opposed the mission ; but 
Campbell, counting on his influence and good standing witli 
the several tribes, begged permission to make the venture. He 
at length passed out of the fort, attended by Lieutenant Mc- 
Dougal, La Butte and several Canadians. Almost at the gates 
of the fort he was met by two messengers sent by M. Gouin to 
warn him of the treachery intended. This person had circu- 
lated through the Ottawa camp expressly to discover the de- 
signs on foot, and had learned enough to convince him of the 
perfidious nature of the proposal for a mission. But, Major 
Campbell was too strong in his convictions of safety in Pontiac's 
hands, and he refused to return. Passing on he soon came to 
the bridge over the creek leading into the Indian village. Once 
over it he had passed forever from retreat or friendly aid. He 
wa.s quickly beset by a great crowd of women, children and 
half grown boys, who would have assaulted him at once had 
not the Chief come forward for his protection. Pontiac led the 
veteran officer and his aid to the central lodge where mats 
were laid for their comfort. The lodge was soon filed with 
warriors, who pressed in sullen silence in and around the place 
to hear what was said. 

Campbell at once made a speech — stating his surprise at the 
breaking of the peace which had so long existed. He asked 
its cause, and said if any grievance existed the English fathers 
would consider it their duty to correct it. To this no reply 
was returned. Around the two men stood a wall of savages, 
silent as Sphinxes, and as heartless as the Aztec God of Sacri- 
fice. For one long hour they sat there awaiting a response ; 
yet none came. Campbell read his fate in that calm. He 
finally arose to his feet and declared his purpose to return to 
the fort, but, with a gesture of authority, the Chief bade him 
be seated again : " My father," he said significantly, " will sleep 



54 THE CONSPIRACY OF PONTIAC. 

to-niglit in the lodges of his red children." Then the solemn 
silence was broken, and the Indians betrayed unmistakable 
signs of violence ; but Campbell and McDougal were led away 
by the Chief and placed under guard in the house of a Cana- 
dian named Meloche. La Butte returned late in the evening 
to the fort to report his sad tidings : all present felt that their 
revered officer and friend were indeed lost to them forever. 
Two Ojibwas, then prisoners in the fort, were set apart as host- 
ages for the Englishmen's safety. 

This detention of an embassy which Pontiac himself had 
sought, is not the least perfidious of his many acts of dishonor. 
Had the officers been sent by Gladwyn, their detention as 
prisoners of war might not have been inadmissable in savage 
warfare ; but, the detestable falsehood by which they were 
lured to the Indian camp, and their imprisonment to await the 
issue of events, reflect upon Pontiac's memory a stain which 
no special pleading for the " untutored mind" will wipe away. 
It was, like many others' of his proceedings, the work of a 
monster in pei-fidy.^ 

The imprisonment of Campbell was followed by active ope- 
rations. Pontiac, having resolved to accept no terms save a 
total surrender of the garrison, post,, property and the two 
armed vessels lying off the fort, prepared to press the siege so 
closely as to compel Gladwyn to surrender from the mere want 
of provisions — of which he knew a short supply only existed. 
A large body of Wyandots having become somewhat Chris- 
tianized by the influence of a Jesuit priest had, thus far, re- 
fused to participate in the conspiracy. These non-combatants 
the great Chief threatened with dire vengeance if they longer 
refused to enter upon the war path. Stipulating that they 
should be permitted to attend the celebration of mass before 
dancing the war dance, these converts entered into the conflict 

* Major Campbell was not long afterwards murdered by the Chief of the 
Ojibwas. His body was horribly mutilated, and, it is stated, his heart — being that 
of a brave man — was eaten by his murderers to give them courage. It does not 
relieve Pontiac from the responsibility of the murder that he was so incensed at 
tke Ojibwa Chief as to send him away to Saginaw. 



INVESTMENT OF THE FORT. 55 

"witli great zeal and became Pontiac's most tireless and efficient 
warriors.' 

The disposition made by Pontiac of his forces was such as 
to invest the fort perfectly, except upon its river front. Off 
the fort, out in the stream, most fortunately for the garrison, 
lay two small vessels, both armed and ready for service as 
transports or for defense. These kept open the communica- 
tion by water ; all other approaches were closed by the savages, 
who, after May 12th, swarmed over the entire vicinity, occu- 
pying every position where a good shot might be likely to re- 
ward the vigilant brave. 

Gladwyn, beholding these menacing preparations for his de- 
struction, for the first time listened to the suggestions of his 
officers and men regarding an evacuation of the post, while it 
was yet possible, and an escape by the transports to Niagara. 
On the evening of the 12th, after sustaining a day's sharp fire 
from the assailing horde without, the commandant convened 
his officers to decide the question of evacuation. According 

» Father Pothier's moral teachings seem to have struck no deeper into the 
savage heart than the teachings of evangelists since. The number of good Chris- 
tians made out of the western and north-western tribes in one hundred years 
would only startle the reader by its absurd minuteness when contrasted with the 
efforts made. We may refer to a case which came under our own personal knowl- 
edge, as illustrative of the fact that despite all apparent civilization, the Indian 
never forgets his wild instincts : 

A Wyandot, belonging to one of the leading families of his tribe, was educated 
in Northern Ohio, and proved to be a man of fine talents. After leaving school he 
studied law, was admitted to practice, married a most amiable and accomplished 
woman — the daughter of a leading elder in the Methodist church — and gave pro- 
mise of a useful, perhaps a brilliant, career. He was, in time, put in nomination by 
the Whig party for the ofiBce of Prosecuting Attorney for which he was admirably 
fitted. At the election he was defeated, doubtless from the popular prejudice 
againss Indian blood. The defeat so stung his pride that the native spirit in a day 
overwhelmed his ambition and his civilization. He soon returned to his tribe 
(then living on the Wyandot Reservation near Upper Sandusky, Ohio), to become 
a common Indian in pursuits and tastes. 

Similar cases are mentioned by historians. One, referred to we think by Stone, 
in his excellent " Life of Thayendanega" (Brandt) Chief of the Six Nations, where 
a young and talented Indian was educated for the ministry and entered with zeal 
upon his labors for some time ; when suddenly he disappeared, leaving behind him 
all his " civilized" property in clothes, books, &c., to become one of his tribe 
again. 



56 THE CONSPIRACY OF PONTIAC. 

to a letter published in the old Pennsylvania Gazette (No. 1803) 
the Major alone is represented to have opposed the evacuation, 
and declared for holding out to the last extremity — hoping for 
reenforcements and supplies. This decision, it would appear, 
prevailed. Every arrangement was made for the defense. 
The scanty store of provisions — enough for about three weeks' 
sustenance upon close rations — was carefully gathered and put 
under lock and key, that not a morsel should be wasted- 
Water tanks were provided for use, in case of attempts by the 
savages to set the thatch roofs of the buildings on fire by means 
of arrows loaded with burning tow ; while the most tireless 
vigilance was enjoined among officers and men. How that 
vigilance was enforced may be inferred from the letter of an 
officer of the garrison, written under date of July 6tli, 1763 : 

" We have been besieged here two Months, by Six Hundred Indians. 
We have been upon the Watch Night and Day, from the Command- 
ing Ofhcer to the lowest soldier, and have not had our Cloaths oflF, 
nor slept all Night since it began ; we shall continue so til we have 
a Reinfoi"cement up." 

The indefatigable commandant had to use all his art to cope 
with his tireless foe. The vessels lying off shore were yet 
kept under the fort's guns, apprehending, as Gladwyn did, that 
Pontiac might try to effect their capture by boarding. Their 
guns swept the entire northern and southern face of the pali- 
sades — thus deterring the savages from any general assault. 
No occasion was lost for picking off every red skin who show- 
ed himself within range. Food was surreptitiously thrown 
into the place from over the river at night, by the aid of friend- 
ly Canadians. This beneficent act enabled the garrison to 
hold out, much to the astonishment of the Indians, who were, 
for a long time, kept in ignorance of the supplies sent over by 
boats. It was the Indians, indeed, who first wanted for food. 
Their improvidence had not been restricted by a state of war : 
they ate and wasted with the recklessness of fools. Thus their 
own stores of corn and cured meat was, ere long, exhausted, 
when they began to plunder the farm houses of the hahitans to 
such a degree as compelled the Canadians to protest and de- 
mand protection of Pontiac. A deputation of fifteen old resi- 



THE CANADIANS' PROTEST. 57 

dents visited the Cliief, laying their complaints before him, 
and threatening that when the French father came from Mont- 
real " with his great army," he would punish the Indians as 
enemies/ 

To this the Chief replied, extenuating the acts of the young 
men by reciting his own services in behalf of the Canadians, 
and particularly by referring to his co-operation, in the war 
with the Sac and Fox Indians, when he united with the 
French and assisted in defeating the Northern tribes — a war 
of which no historical record exists, though Parkman has suc- 
ceeded in finding a confirmation of Pontiac's version of it in 
the Mss. of McDougaP — the officer who accompanied Major 
Campbell in his mission to Pontiac, May 10th. Pontiac re- 
peated the story of a French army of invasion, and hoped that 
when it arrived all the Canadians who had assisted the Eng- 
lish would be attended to. The Chief gave promise of protec- 
tion but still reserved the right to provide himself and his war- 
riors with food at the Canadians' expense. To this end, while 
his mandate was sufficient to protect the farmers from plunder, 
it was also potent enough to draw from their stores the sup- 
plies which the savages required. He established a depot at 
the house of Meloche, where, using several Frenchmen as as- 
sistants, the provisions were stored and issued in rations, to 
prevent improvidence. To the Canadians thus relieved of 

It would appear that, despite the news then generally disseminated throughout 
Canada and the Western posts, of the consummation of the treaty of February lOth, 
by which the French ceded to England all their possessions in the region named, 
tJiere still prevailed a belief in the Canadas of a French invasion to regain their 
lost supremacy. This is referred to by Gladwyn — in a letter to Sir Jeffrey Amherst, 
dated July 8th, 1765 — as the cause of the uprising among the Indians. Before the 
arrival of news regarding the treaty, Pontiac had dispatched agents to M. Neyou, 
French Commandant in the Illinois country, requesting his co-operation in the 
reduction of Detroit. Pontiac, however, knew before hostilities had progressed a 
month, that no co-operation could or would be extended by the French ; but he 
preferred to keep the fires burning, by representing to the tribes of the vast sec- 
tion then seething in the throes of the conspiracy, that the French army would 
Burely come to their aid. His falsehood and duplicity toward his own people were 
only exceeded in baseness by his treachery and cruelty toward his enemies. 

' McDougal, it would appear, succeeded in effecting his escape from captivity 
among the Ottawas, and afterwards wrote out voluminous notes of the war. Tho 
documents are yet unpublished. 



88 THE CONSPIRACY OF PONTIAC. 

their property he gave notes or certificates of indebtedness, 
written on birch bark and signed by the Chief with his totem 
signet, the otter. The issue of these rough evidences of in- 
debtedness is regarded by the Chief's biographers as indicat- 
ive of remarkable intelUgence in a savage. As the Chief was 
surrounded by men who well knew the value of, and the mode 
of preparing, notes of hand, it is to be presumed that, to recon- 
cile the Canadians to the levies made upon them, he acceded 
to their demands for evidences, and simply gave what was re- 
quired. No remarkable sagacity or intelhgence were requisite 
for such an act. 

We may, before pursuing the narrative of operations at and 
around Detroit, recur to the fall of those posts, in the then In- 
dian country, against which the Conspiracy was du'ected. 

Fort Sandusky was taken May 16th, by the treachery of the 
Wyandots. These Indians having been admitted freely to the 
fortification were regarded as friends. On the morning of the 
day named seven well known warriors applying for admission, 
were at once given an audience by Ensign Paully, command- 
ant of the post. The visitoi's having seated themselves seem- 
ingly prepared for a smoke, when, a signal being given by one 
of the number stationed near the door, Paully was seized and 
disarmed. At the same moment a peculiar noise without in- 
formed him that the work of slaughter was going on among 
his men. He was soon led from the room to behold the jja- 
rade strewn with the corpses of his troops. He was borne at 
once to the lake where canoes were in readiness, and his late 
friends paddled away for Detroit, offering the Ensign the sweet 
consolation of being burnt at the stake for Pontiac's edification. 
The light of his burning fort lit him on his way over the wa- 
ters. He was conducted to the Ottawa camp, where for a sea- 
son he served as a mark for the bludgeons and arrows of the 
women and children — a torture inflicted on all prisoners as 
preliminary to the severer tortures inflicted by the men. The 
poor prisoner was, however, saved from the fate in store, by 
being chosen as the husband of an old woman whose partner 
had died, and Paully became, to all intents and purposes, an 
Indian of the Ottawa tribe. He afterwards succeeded in es- 



FALL OF THE WESTERN POSTS. 69 

caping from the love embraces of his coffee-skinned spouse, 
and found refuge in Detroit. 

The old post at St. Joseph fell on the 25th of May. Located 
on Lake Michigan, at the mouth of St. Joseph river, it was 
indeed far removed from civilization, yet hut fourteen men gar-' 
risoned the place ! A few runners of the Pottawatamies came 
during the evening previous, to " visit" that section of their 
tribe located near the fort. They bore Pontiac's order for the 
sacrifice of the garrison. On the morning of the 25th a great 
throng of savages (Pottawatamies) gathered around the place, 
and numbers found entrance within the garrison grounds, to 
play the usual game of pei'fidy and slaughter. The command- 
ant, Ensign Schlosser, with three men, were spared and taken 
to Detroit to be exchanged for Indians then in Gladwyn's 
possession. 

On the 27th of May, Fort Miami, on the Maumee river, in 
Ohio, (just above the present town of Maumee,) passed into 
the hands of the savages and Canadians. Its capture was ac- 
companied by treachery of an unusual character. A Miami 
belle was the mistress of Ensign Holmes, then in charge of 
the post. His bronze beauty came to him on the morn- 
ing of May 27th, representing a squaw to be dangerously ill, 
begging him to visit the wigwam, not far off. Holmes had 
suspected, from various signs, that the savages around him 
meditated treachery, and was on his guard ; but, conceiving 
no perfidy to stain the heart of his companion, he at once fol- 
lowed her from the fort to the wigwams lying out of sight 
though not far from the fortification. Once within their pre- 
cincts he was shot instantly. His sergeant, hearing the firing, 
and fearing the worst, passed' out to reconnoitre, when he w^as 
seized. This left the post quite at the mercy of the savages. 
The garrison soon was summoned to surrender — the summons 
coming from white men, Canadians, who were engaged with 
the Indians. Having a promise of protection if no defense 
was made, the little garrison— isolated beyond hope of help or 
rescue, without a leader, and destitute, in some degree, of 
pluck — surrendered, and Fort Miami, holding the avenue of 
approach to the Wabash valley, was lost to the EnglisL 



60 THE CONSPIRACY OF PONTIAC. 

Fort Ouatanon, on the Wabash river, in Indiana (below the 
present town of La Fayette,) was captured June 1st, by the Il- 
linois, by stratagem, as its commandant reported in a letter to 
Gladwyn dated at that time. The Illinois, far removed from the 
influence of civilisation, were comparatively a peaceful people. 
Acting under the influence of orders which they dare not dis- 
obey, they took the garrison prisoners and treated them kind- 
ly. This action proves how far-reaching was the power of the 
fierce Ottawa Chief 

Fort Michilmacinac fell June 4th, by the hands of the Ojib- 
was and Sacs. That most important post lay on the apex of 
the peninsula of Michigan, like a point of steel to serve as the 
entering wedge for civilization and commerce to the North. 
Its great importance and extreme isolation, however, did not 
Bee it properly garrisoned. It was held by about forty men 
under command of Captain Etheringtoru Nearly fifty other 
whites were at the post at the date of its fall, to partake of its 
disaster. The day preceding the fatal day, the Ojibwas inform- 
ed the people of the garrison of their intention to play a game 
of ball — baggatiway — for a wager, inviting all to witness it 
As the 4th was the King's birth day Captain Etherington per- 
mitted his men to enjoy the holiday, and very little caution 
was used in securing the fort. Discipline probably was forgot- 
ten. Captain Etherington and several of his officers passed 
out on the plain to witness the game, while the soldiers of the 
gaiTison flung open the gates and admitted a number of gaily 
clad squaws who were eager apparently for the society of 
the whites. They were conspirators in disguise; beneath 
each gaudy mantle was concealed the tomahawk soon to reek 
with the brains and blood of the unsuspicious victims. During 
the progress of the exciting game, in which four hundred sav- 
ages participated, the ball was steadily pressed up toward the 
palisades, and, finally, with one tremendous stroke of the bat 
it was sent circling clear over the enclosure. With a wild 
shout and a furious rush the whole throng rushed to the gates, 
and, before officers or men were aware, the Indians were all 
within. Then came the work of slaughter. On the air arose 
the defiant war whoop. From beneath the squaws' blankets 



THE FALL OF MICHILMACINAC. 61 

flew the iron hatcliets and knives commissioned to the work 
of death, and, in a brief space of time, every English soldier on 
the parade was murdered and scalped. A trader who was present, 
escaped by the protection aiforded by a French resident. We 
may quote a few paragraphs from his intensely interesting 
though appalling narrative : 

" Going instantly to my window, I saw a crowd of Indians within the 
fort, furiously cutting down and scalping every Englishman they found. 
In particular, I witnessed the fate of Lieutenant Jemette. 

" I had, in the room in which I was, a fowling-piece, loaded with 
swan-shot. This I immediately seized, and held it for a few minutes, 
waiting to hear the drum beat to arms. In this dreadful interval I saw 
several of my countrymen fall, and more than one struggling between 
the knees of an Indian, who, holding him in this manner, scalped him 
while yet alive. 

" At length, disappointed in the hope of resistance made to the enemy, 
and sensible, of course, that no eftbrt of my own unassisted arm could 
avail against four hundred Indians, I thought only of seeking shelter. 
Amid the slaughter which was raging, I observed many of the Canadian 
inhabitants of the fort looking calmly on, neither opposing the Indis.ns 
nor suffering injury ; and from this circumstance I conceived a hope of 
finding a place of security in their houses. 

. "Between the yard-door of my own house and that of M. Langlade, 
my next neighbor, there was only a low fence, over which I easily 
climbed. At my entrance, I found the whole family at the windows, 
gazing on the scene of blood before them, I addressed myself im- 
mediately to Langlade, begging that he would put me in some place 
of safety, till the heat of the aiiair should be over — an act of charity 
by which he might perhaps preserve me from the general massacre ; 
but while I uttered my petition, M. Langlade, who had looked for 
a moment at me, turned again to the window, shrugging his shoul- 
ders, and intimating that he could do nothing for me : ' Que voudriez- 
vous que fen ferau f ' 

" This was a moment for despair ; but the next, a Pan! (Pawnee) 
woman, a slave of M. Langlade's beckoned me to follow her. She 
brought me to a door, which she opened, desiring me to enter, and 
telling me that it led to the garret, where I must go and conceal 
myself. I joyfully obeyed her directions ; and she, having followed 
me up to the garret door, locked it after me, and, with great pre- 
sence of mind, took away the key, 

"This shelter obtained, if shelter I could hope to find it, I was 
naturally anxious to know what might still be passing without. 
Through an aperture, which afforded me a view of the area of the 



62 THE CONSPIRACY OF PONTIAC. 

fort, I beheld, in shapes the foulest and most terrible, the ferocious 
triumphs of barbarian conquerors. The dead were scalped and man- 
gled, and the dying were writhing and shrieking under the unsati- 
ated knife and tomahawk, and from the bodies of some, ripped open, 
the savage butchers were drinking the blood, scooped up in the hol- 
low of joined hands, and quaffed amid shouts of rage and victory. 
I was shaken not only with horror, but with fear. The sufferings 
which I witnessed, I seemed on the point of experiencing. No long 
time elapsed before — every one being destroyed who could be found 
— there was a general cry of ' All is finished ! ' " 

All was indeed finished, so far as the destruction of the gar- 
rison was concerned. The of&cers were spared the general 
butchery by being run off into the woods. They were after- 
wards transferred to the keeping of the Ottawus from the Jes- 
uit station of LArbee Crocha, twenty-six miles west of the fort 
A good priest, Father Jonois, exerted all his influence in be- 
half of the captives, and, at Captain Etherington's request, 
made the arduous journey to Detroit to inform Gladwyn of 
the extent of the disaster. He arrived in Detroit June 19th, 
bearing a letter from the Captain in which, after detailing the 
e^rents of the massacre, he begged for Gladwyn's immediate 
co-operation to regain the post — not knowing the extent of the 
latter commander's own great wants. 

Although the post at Sault St Marie was abandoned in the 
fall of 1762, its garrison did not escape the fate of Michilmaci- 
nac, for most of the men were victims in that massacre. A 
fire having partially destroyed their fortifications, they had 
been thrown into the fort on the south side of the Straits to 
await orders, or reenforcements before re-occupying the Sault 
station. Alas, they never returned ! 

The Green Bay station, though, by the prudence of its com- 
manding ofiicer. Lieutenant Gorell, it was spared the massacre 
of its garrison of seventeen men, was abandoned. After vari- 
ous trials the commander and his men succeeded in making 
their way by the Ottawa portage to Montreal — there to report 
to Sir Jeffrey Amherst as the only garrison of his western 
forts which had escaped destruction. Detroit alone held out, 
but how long could it escape the calamity impending ? 

The day succeeding Father Jonois' visit to Detroit, Gladwyn 



FALL OF THE WESTERN POSTS. 63 

received news of tlie loss, after an oliitinate defense, of Presqu' 
Isle, on Lake Erie (now Erie, Pa.) This news was confirmed 
by the appearance, on the banks of the river opposite Detroit, 
of a band of prisoners — the remnant of the brave garrison. It 
was not until after the escape of Ensign Christie, several weeks- 
later, from the Ottawas' village, that Gladwyn was informed 
of the full measure of the calamity. A band of Ottawas and 
Wyandots having been dispatched by Pontiac for the reduc- 
tion of the post, appeared before the post on the 15th of June. 
The little band of defenders retired to the strong block house, 
where they made a defense quite memorable in the history of 
Indian wars. All day long, having the vantage ground of 
excellent breastworks, the savages pressed the assault so deter- 
minedly as to task the English to their utmost to save their 
fortress. A number of times it was in flames, which were only 
qxienched by the use of the water preserved in barrels for the 
sustenance of the men. During the night the poor fellows had 
tO' work to sink a shaft for water, and, by morning, were re- 
warded for their exhausting endeavors. The precious fluid 
•was needed, for early in the day of June 18th, the Indians 
h,ftving approached the garrison grounds by a mine, succeeded 
ii'i firing the commandant's house, so near the block house as 
8' on to set the httle citadel again in flames. With the water, 
h ( great exertions, the place of refuge was once more preserv- 
ed. During the 1 8th the fight was most obstinately waged, 
aiad night came to find Christie's men thoroughly prostrated 
from excessive labor. Still, they had to watch and fight on amid 
an atmosphere hot with fire and clogged with gunpowder 
smoke. At midnight a voice from without, in French, sum- 
moned the garrison to surrender, stating that preparations had 
been perfected for efiectually firing the block house. After a 
brief parley an armistice was obtained for the night, when the 
men were permitted to sleep. In the morning, after ascertain- 
ing that the enemy had indeed prepared to roast the ganison 
alive, Christie surrendered, stipulating that himself and garri- 
son should be permitted to make their way to the nearest post 
"When once within the hands of the Indians, however, the en- 
tire company was seized and borne to Detroit in captivity. 



64 THE CONSPIRACY OF PONTIAC. 

Pontiac kept them closely confined in defiance of tlie express 
terms of the surrender. As stated, Christie, ere long, by gi-eat 
daring escaped and reached Gladwyn in safety. The gallant 
fellow afterwards made a report, embodying the incidents of 
the defense. 

The posts nearest Presqu' Isle were those of La Beuf, and 
Venango — both on the direct trail to Fort Pitt, now Pitts- 
burg, Pa. The first was assailed on the evening of the 18th 
of June, by a detachment of the force then besieging Fort 
Presqu' Isle. It was soon in flames from fire arrows and flaming 
balls of pitch. The savages gathered around the gateway, 
waiting for the egress of their prey ; but while the flames were 
roaring above and around him Ensign Price, the commandant, 
was cutting his way oat through the rear walls. An openiiig 
having been effected he and his men all escaped, under cover 
of the darkness to the woods, proposing to find their way to 
Fort Pitt. They struck off" into the wilderness leaving tJie 
savages dancing and yelling before the front gate, in the beli'if 
that the whites were roasting alive within. Price pressed on 
to Yenango, where he arrived on the succeeding night to fi'nd 
nothing of that fort but embers, around which he was horror 
stricken to find the half consumed bodies of its little guard. 
It had been seized several days previously by the Senecas, 
who, having obtained admittance under pretence of friendship, 
butchered all the garrison except Lieutenant Gordon, the com- 
mandant. Him they reserved for the slow torture by fire. 
For sevei'al days, while the wretches feasted upon the garrison 
stores, and became infuri^ated over the whisky which always 
formed a leading article of supplies, they enjoyed their leisure 
moments in roasting the hapless commandant. He finally died 
under the torture, and, the stores having been consumed or 
wasted, the fiends set fire to the property and left that vicinity. 
Had Price and his little body guard arrived a day sooner it is 
horrible to think what must have been his fate. As it was, 
his command were great sufferers. Five of his thirteen men 
gave out on the way from Venango to Fort Pitt, and were left 
in the woods to perish of starvation. The Ensign and seven 
men reached Fort Pitt June 26th, in a distressed condition. 



SCENES OF TERROK AT THE WEST. 65 

Bejond Fort Pitt, on tlie old Braddock trail to Cumberland 
were Forts Ligonier, Bedford and Cumberland, and Fort Au- 
gusta on the Susquehanna. All these posts were beset, but the 
savages were not in force enough to carry them. They seem 
only to have been after scalps and obtained many. Around 
most of these stations were settlements and farms. The Sene- 
cas and Delawares haunted the woods like hyenas, and carried 
terror along the whole frontier. These Indians united with 
the Shawnees, and for several weeks beset Fort Pitt, then com- 
manded by Captain Ecuyer. Being in a position to hold his 
own against the assailants he answered their formal demands 
for a surrender, made July 26th (1768), by defiance and sar- 
casm. That night they invested the fortification, which stood 
facing the two rivei-s Alleghany and Monongahela, in whose 
forks it was built. Creeping up the banks of these two streams 
the savages dug burrows in the soft soil, and from their cover 
poured a severe fire into the fort above them. For several 
days this warfare continued, but was finally abandoned — the 
approach of Bouquet with his Highlanders, from the East, 
sending the savages in some haste to the wilderness. 

We cannot here enter upon an account of the desolating war 
of the border which raged along the entire frontier, from the 
vales of Western Virginia to the Mohawk valley. Its story 
forms one of the most distressing chapters in our early history. 
Families which retu-ed to rest in fancied security were awak- 
ened from their repose by the appalling war-whoop ; fathers 
and brothers were slain in brave efibrts to defend their loved 
ones ; mothers shrieked for mercy in vain, or, after witnessing 
the braining of their little ones, were borne off mto a captivity 
worse than death. Farms were desolated, buildings burned, 
stock slaughtered. The ciy of wo and sufifering went up from 
a thousand broken family circles. Men took to the war-path 
in defense, while their women and children were sent away to 
the east of the Susquehanna for safety. Then followed the 
subtle, relentless war of extermination. Settlers, mad with 
their losses, became as implacable as savages and neither asked 
nor gave quarter. The forests were haunted with pursuers 
and pursued, who flitted like evil spiiits every where — seeking 
9 



QQ THE CONSPIRACY OP PONTIAC. 

the darkest coverts for their enemies, and mingling in the 
hand to hand contest away off in labyrinths where the foot of 
the white man never before had trodden. The whoop of defi- 
ance, the shout of hate, the sharp crack of the rifle, the shriek 
of agony, were rapid episodes in the terrible drama. Then 
came the death struggle. If the dull sound of the tomahawk 
cleaving the skull was heard, and was followed by the dismal 
scalp-yell, it was a sign that the whites were overcome : if the 
rush of feet and the shouts of pursuit echoed through the 
woody fastnesses it was the good portent of victory to the 
settlers. 

All through the summer and fall of 1763 — through the 
months of 1764 — this infernal warfare was waged ; and not 
until after the successes of Bouquet and Bradstreet's expedi- 
tions against the Indian towns was quiet restored to the settle- 
ments on the eastern slope of the Alleghanies and in the Sus- 
quehanna vallies. It was not, indeed, until the year 1769 
that the spirit of conspiracy was subdued and fears of a general 
massacre by the Indians allayed. Then followed a few years 
of repose, in which the settlements prospered, and the daring 
fr intiersmen encroached rapidly upon the Indians' domain, 
ojily to be stayed by the storm of the War for Independence. 
Tliat, for the while, arrested all progress, and placed the entire 
frontier again on the defense against the savages incited, by 
British gold and British promises, to the work of butchery. 

Let us return from this inevitable digression again to Ponti- 
ac's own immediate operations against Detroit. Upon his suc- 
cess there seemed to hang the fate of his entire scheme. At 
least the pertinacity with which the siege was pressed would 
so seem to argue ; and yet, when the Chief found that France 
would not embark in the war, what hope could he have had 
of any ultimate success ? He evidently fought for the glory 
of leadership and from hate — not from the expectation of see- 
ing his people restored to their hunting grounds and the whites 
driven over the Alleghanies. That he was ignorant of the 
power and resources of the English to crush him, is not at all 
admissable. He fought because he loved to fight 

Pontiac's force in the field, at first confined to the warriors 



SAD FATE OF THE RELIEF BOATS. 67 

of those sections of the three tribes — Ottawas, Wyandots and 
Pottawatamies — which were camping around Detroit, was rap- 
idly augmented in June by warriors from other villages and 
tribes. His strength, however, was not formidable, at any 
time, had the garrisons not all been so weak. A force of one 
thousand trusty troops would have annihilated the horde of 
assassins which infested the neighborhood of Detroit, and that 
done, the same troops could have passed into Ohio, to punish 
the tribes there into obedience. The uprising was so well 
matured, the forts all were so rapidly assaulted, that no oppor- 
tunity for reenforcements offered. The garrisons were destroy- 
ed ere help could have reached them. Then the conspiracy 
assumed such formidable dimensions as to render a general 
commonwealth organization of militia necessary, and several 
years passed away ere the punishment was inflicted which 
crushed out the fires lit by Pontiac's baleful influence. 

About the middle of May (1763), the spring supply of pro- 
visions and ammunition was dispatched, in twenty small boats 
under command of Lieutenant Cuyler, from Fort Schlosser 
(just above Niagara Falls) to Detroit. No knowledge then 
was had of the hostility prevailing, and the boats' crews coast- 
ed up along the northern shore of Lake Erie in fancied securi- 
ty. Arriving at Point au Pelee island, May 28th, the boats all 
landed and the men proceeded to prepare fires. In a few mo- 
ments an ambuscade of Wyandots — doubtless the identical 
band who had destroyed Sandusky twelve days before — open- 
ed on the troops, who at once formed as a cover to their boats ; 
but, the savages becoming restless for their prey, and being in 
overwhelming force, broke from cover and dashed upon the 
lines. The English stood but a moment. The uplifted toma- 
hawks, the hellish whoop, the bodies painted into hideousness 
sufficed to fill the hearts of the regulars with a sudden panic 
Muskets were thrown away and a dash made for the boats, 
five of which were put afloat, filled to overflowing with the 
fear-stricken crowd. The savages seized two other boats and 
pursued, when three of the five little craft capitulated without 
defense. Two of the boats — one of which contained Lieuten- 
ant Cuyler — pulled for the adjacent islands (now called Put-in 



68 THE CONSPIRACY OF PONTIAC. 

Bay islands) and from thence to the fort at Sandusky, on San- 
dusky Bay. The fort, as already recorded, having been de- 
stroyed by the Wyandots, offered the fleeing men no refuge. 
Cuyler then started on his return to Niagara, following the 
southern shore of the Lake. He reached Presqu' Isle in safe- 
ty and soon passed on to Niagara — to report the fall of San- 
dusky and his own losses. 

It is sickening to contemplate the horrible end of the men 
seized in the three boats. After their capture the savages, 
with the entire flotilla of boats started for Detroit. On the 
morning of May 80th, a sentinel discovered the heavily la- 
dened convoys rounding Montreal point. A great shout went 
up from the beleaguered garrison and a crowd of soldiers, 
habiians and traders at once rushed to the landing to welcome 
the relief It was a moment of the wildest joy; but cheers 
and the booming of cannon were quickly succeeded by the 
most heart-rending depression. The answer to those notes of 
welcome was the appalling war-whoop, which came faintly over 
the water, while in every boat appeared a band of naked sav- 
ages gesticulating and yelling like demons. The truth at once 
was evident to all, and the disheartened group on the landing 
returned, sickened, to the fort. Soon they were all excitement 
again. The boats gradually made their way up stream, pulled 
by the white men, over whom the savages held guard. When 
opposite the fort and the remaining vessel — one of the two 
vessels having then gone to Niagara to hasten up supplies — 
the crew in the first and leading small boat conceived the da- 
ring design of escape. The brave fellow acting as steersman 
grappled a stalwart Indian and flung him overboard, but the 
supple savage clung to the Englishman's garments and suc- 
ceeded in pulling him into the deep river. They closed in the 
water, in a deadly struggle— the Wyandot using his knife with 
such fatal aim as soon sent his foe to the bottom. While this 
was transpiring the two remaining Indians leaped overboard, 
when the prisoners pulled for life toward the fort and vessel. 
The savages, with a loud cry of fury, struck out in pursuit ; 
while the guard in all the boats, and the horde of Indiang fol- 
lowing along the eastern bank of the river, opened fire on the 



ANOTHER RELIEF EXPEDITION. 69 

boat, wounding one of the three poor fellows in it. The chase 
became exciting in the extrem, Kifle balls cut the water all 
around into flecks of foam. Every moment the light canoes 
which had put out after the fugitives gained rapidly on the 
clumsy yawl. The fate of the soldiers seemed sealed, when, 
suddenly, the vessel opened on the pursuit with her six-pound- 
ers, and the three brave men were saved. The first ball cut 
the water close to the foremost canoe. Other shot which 
quickly followed caused the entire disappearance of the sava- 
ges, who ever entertained a kind of supernatural dread of the 
" big bullets." The entire boats' crews were landed and the 
boats beached, while the wretched prisoners were marched 
around to the Ottawa camp above, to enter at once upon their 
tortures. Their corpses, blackened with fire and wounds, were 
cast into the river to float by the fortress and the vessels and 
thus warn the Englishmen of the fate reserved for all prisoners. 
A number of Canadians came, in terror to the fort, during the 
evening of that day (May 30th) to report such details of the 
sufferings of the prisoners as served to sicken and appal every 
listener. The Pontiac Ms. gives the following version of this 
awful affair : 

" The Indians, fearing that the other barges might escape as the iirst 
had done, changed their plan of going to the camp. They landed their 
prisoners, tied them, and conducted them by land to the Ottawa village, 
and then crossed them to Pontiac's camj), where they were all butch- 
ered. As soon as the canoes reached the shore, the barbarians landed 
their prisoners, one after the other, on the beach. They made them 
strip themselves, and then sent arrow^s into different parts of their bodies. 
These unfortunate men wished sometimes to throw themselves on the 
ground to avoid the arrows ; but they were beaten with sticks and 
forced to stand up until they were dead ; after which those who had not 
fired fell upon their bodies, cut them to pieces, cooked and ate them. 
On others they exercised different modes of torment by cutting their 
flesh with flints, and piercing them with lances. They would then cut 
their feet and hands off, and leave them weltering in their blood till 
they were dead. Others were fastened to stakes, and children employed 
in burning them with a slow fire. No kind of torment was left untried 
by these Indians. Some of the bodies were left on shore ; others were 
thrown into the river. Even the women assisted their husbands in tor- 
turing their victims. They slitted them with theii- knives, and mangled 



70 THE CONSPIRACY OF PONTIAC. 

them in various ways. There were, however, a few whose lives were 
saved, being adopted to serve as slaves." 

Such was the mercy meted out to helpless men by the 
" magnanimous savage" — as Pontiac's biographers have been 
pleased to term this monster of perfidy and cruelty. 

It was but a few days after this that a procession of savages 
appeared on the eastern bank of the river bearing on poles the 
scalps of the Sandusky garrison. And from that time onward, 
until the fate of all the posts had been determined, Gladwyn 
was, at intervals, first m^de acquainted with new disasters by 
the sight of scalps or of prisoners exhibited on the Canada side 
of the stream. Thus the dreary monotony of the siege was 
stirred, though painfully, by episodes which served to redouble 
the vigilance of the beleagured men. What a fate was in reserve 
for them if Pontiac once became possessed of their defense ! 

All excitement was not, however, of a painful character. 
One of the two schooners anchored oif the fort at the opening 
of the siege had been dispatched to Niagara for reenforcements 
and stores. The vessel missed Cuyler's convoy and passed 
down to Fort Schlosser, where she still remained at the date 
of Cuyler's return with his two boats' crews. She was then 
put in good trim and dispatched to Gladwyn's relief — Cuyler 
and his remaining men embarking in her. June 19th she had 
reached Detroit river and lay off" Turkey island to await a fa- 
vorable breeze with which to run the gauntlet that Cuyler 
knew was in store for them at the narrow channel along 
Fighting island. The vessel lay calm-bound below the island 
until June 23d, when a favorable breeze induced the com- 
mander to weigh anchor and to try the passage. The trip 
promised success, when, at the most critical moment, all wind 
died away leaving the little craft again becalmed. Anchor 
was cast in the narrowest part of the channel, as it would not 
do to drift down with the current for fear of grounding. All 
things were made ready for an attack. The banks swarmed 
with Indians, too eager for their prey to keep concealed. Over 
five hundred of the villains were on the bloody scent. Cuy- 
ler had learned caution, however, and so disposed his force as 
to be ready for any emergency. Night dropped down over 



SAFE AKRIVAL OF THE SCHOOKER. 71 

all, not densely dark, for the stars gleamed out purely and tlie 
clear waters of the river reflected their light like a mirror. 
The sentinels were as sleepless as the stars, noting every sha- 
dow on the surface of the stream. Every log which floated 
lazily down the tide might shield the body of a savage whose 
eye- balls just peered above the water's surface to reconnoitre 
the point of attack. Every clump of grass, every nest of water 
reeds were felt to contain a living man ready to burst from 
cover at any moment when the rush should be ordered. 

Just after midnight the forms of canoes were descried com- 
ing rapidly down stream. Their design evidently was to 
board the vessel so quickly as to give no opportunity for the 
use of the cannon. But, they were not successful. They came 
rushing down to find every man at his post. Swarms of sav- 
ages sprang into the stream from each shore, making direct 
for the schooner. Cuyler waited calmly until the canoes and 
swimmers were within close musket range, when the signal 
was given and a fire opened with grape and musketry which 
crashed fearfully through the canoes and sent death over the 
waters. Fourteen savages were killed and large numbers 
wounded ere they could get beyond range. They fled howling 
to the shores and opened fire from a sand breastwork on the 
vessel. Cuyler dropped down stream a little distance, and 
was safe. 

A second attempt to ascend, made two days later, was suc- 
cessful. She ran the gauntlet of a severe shore fire and gain- 
ed the broad stream above Fighting island, to press on, with a 
good breeze to the fort. Passing the Wyandot village a mur- 
derous discharge of grape into the wigwams was the welcome 
which the vessel brought for the conspirators. To the garri- 
son she brought gladness in many shapes. Not the least joy- 
ful intelligence was the conclusion, between England and 
France, of the Paris Treaty, by which the latter abandoned all 
claim to her old territory. This, it was thought, would compel 
the savages to give over all further hope of French aid and 
thus compel them to abandon their chimerical project of extir- 
pating the English. But, there is every reason to think that 
Pontiac had not, after the first outbreak, counted u^Don FixmcL 



72 THE CONSPIRACY OF PONTIAC. 

aid, althoiigli lie studiously held out the idea of a great French 
army coming up the St. Lawrence in order to commit all the 
tribes under his influence to the war path. 

Eeceiving help from no white source except from the half- 
breeds ' and a few Canadians, Pontiac resolved at length to 
compel the French inhabitants along the river to take sides 
either for or against him — knowing that they would not do 
the latter for fear of consequences to their property and fami- 
lies. The Chief had but to give the command and involve all 
the hahitans in one common massacre. A council was con- 
vened late in June, to which the leading French residents 
were summoned. It was largely attended by chiefs of the 
several tribes and by the Canadians. Pontiac's speech was 
somewhat violent. He said: "You claim to befriends and 
yet relieve and sustain the English by presents of provisions. 
You go through our camps and villages then report all to the 
English. You must be English or French. If you are French 
take up the war-belt and assist us : if you are English we shall 
declare war against you." To this an old Canadian rejilied by 
dissimulation. He confessed their willingness to aid the sav- 
ages but held in his hand a copy of the treaty of Paris, by 
which they were bound not to war. He asked Pontiac, there- 
fore, to say what they could do. The Chief was unable to 
answer; but his heart was gladdened by a number of " hard 
cases" — a set of whites whose long association with the Indians, 
as well as their brutal instincts, made them savages. How 
many of these rascals volunteered it is not stated. The coun- 
cil terminated satisfactorily : a great dog- feast followed, and 
the French ruffians were formally received into the tribes as 
members. 

* Half breeds became a quick growth in every tribe brought into contact with 
" civilization." As in the Slave States the great multitude of mulattos is proof 
positive not only of the waut of virtue among the negroes, but also of the gross 
sensuality of their white mastero, so the presence in every tribe of Indians of great 
numbers of half breeds is evidence of the general absence of female virtue among 
the aborigines. The longer the contact with civilization the greater the demoral- 
ization which has followed. There are but few exceptions to this rule. Unpal- 
atable as the statement may be, our philanthropists and political economists will 
have to accept results even though they contravene theories and hopes of progress. 



THE MURDEE OF MAJOR CAMPBELL. 73 

Night saw the renegades on the war-path. Proceeding 
to the fort, with a party composed of an equal number of Ojib- 
was, they threw up an entrenchment, under cover of the 
darkness, and early dawn found them in a position to worry 
the garrison. A squad of soldiers sallied from the fort at once 
and dislodged them — the white Indians running away at the 
first appearance of the troops. The Oj ibways held their ground 
for a moment and then fled, leaving two of their number dead 
on the field. One of these, a soldier — who had been for seven 
years a captive among the Delawares, and who hated the race 
of red men with an intense hate — scalped, holding up the 
bleeding lock to the sight of the escaping savages. This act 
inspired the Ojibwas with unutterable rage. The red skin 
scalped was a nephew of Wasson, Chief of the Ojibwas. Was- 
son at once blackened his face in token of revenge, proceeded 
with a party of braves to the house of M. Meloche where the 
venerable Major Campbell still was confined, seized and mur- 
dered him on the spot, cut out his heart and ate it, then gave 
his body to the water, from which it was recovered by the 
Canadians and decently interred. This brutal murder so en- 
raged Pontiac that Wasson and his party were compelled to 
flee to Saginaw for their lives. For the veteran Major the 
Ottawa Chief entertained a real respect, and the Conspirator 
doubtless held him in captivity to subserve his purposes in 
procuring terms of settlement, should the war prove disastrous 
to the Indian cause. 

Affairs did not prosper under Pontiac's own immediate 
charge. The fort had not fallen and, after the arrival of the 
transport, more than ever defied his assaults. The two schoon- 
ers so annoyed his villages by frequent bombardments early 
in July as to compel the savages, to their great discomfort, to 
move back into the woods. The smaller vessel having return- 
ed, a second time to Niagara, Pontiac determined to destroy 
the larger schooner. If her destruction could be effected the 
Chief had hopes of carrjdng the fort by assault A fire-raft 
was constructed, composed of two floats loaded with combusti- 
bles. On the night of July 10th, it was fired and sent down 
stream. The vessel lay too close to shore for injury from the 
10 



74 THE CONSPIRACY OF PONTIAC. 

fire messenger; it passed down the stream harmlessly Not 
discouraged, the savage constructed a second and much larger 
raft, which was sent down on the night of July 12th. It was, 
evidently, directed by pilots, for it struck the shore current 
and followed closely down ; only a steersman could have kept 
it from drifting out into the middle of the stream. The flame, 
too, was suppressed apparently until the moment when the pi- 
lots left the float ; then the conflagration became quickly in- 
tense. The spectacle presented was one of sublimity. A 
vast tongue of flame leaped upward, circling around as if eager 
to catch the victim in its fiery folds. Against the background 
of the night it looked like an avenging demon out on its mis- 
sion of devastation. Every farm house stood out in relief by 
its flame ; every man on the fortress, every savage lurking on 
the shore, every canoe on the stream, were pictured in clear 
distinctness by that lurid glare, which penetrated far into the 
fastnesses of the woods around. Every heart in the fort throb- 
bed wildly at the spectacle ; each man stood in awe before that 
contrivance of devils to sweep away their chief defense and 
hope. But, the fear was only momentary. The artful pilots 
had over-done their work, for the raft passed in between the 
fort and the vessel, and floated grandly yet harmlessl}- away 
into the darkness below. As it slowly swept by a cannon 
boomed out on the night. A group of savages stood revealed 
on the river bank, watching the raft. The gunner trailed his 
piece on their dusky forms and a ball went hurtling into their 
midst. They vanished like spectres. 

A third raft was then constructed, but Gladwyn took the 
precaution to anchor booms in the stream above the vessel thus 
completely outwitting the red rogues who, doubtless, acted in 
this matter under the advice, and with the assistance of their 
white coadjutors, before referred to. 

The Indians now began to tire of their fruitless struggla 
Although a large party of Shawnese and Delawares joined 
Pontiac's force in July, and about the sarae^ time, an Abenaki 
runner fi-om Lower Canada came in with the news that the 
French were advancing up the St. Lawrence in a big fleet, the 
original confederates of the Ottawas grew disheartened and re 



CAPTAIN DALZELL'S ARRIVAL. 77 

solved to withdraw. The "Wyandots first made proposals of 
peace and a truce was declared with them. They kept their 
word just three weeks. The Pottawatamies soon followed their 
example, and, after some trouble on account of the non-deliv* 
ery of white prisoners held by their tribe, Gladwyn signified 
his amity with them. This apparently left the Ottowas 
and the fierce Ojibwas alone in the field. With the detach- 
ments of Shawnese and Delawares, and the French renegades, 
Pontiac still controlled a formidable force. The Wyandots 
and Pottawatamies were ready for the war-path at any moment 
which seemed propitious for scalps. Their treaties were the 
merest mockery. 

Eeenforcements at length reached the beleaguered garrison. 
Having received news of Cuyler's disaster, Sir Jefl'rey Amherst 
— then at New York on his return to England — dispatched 
his aid-de-camp. Captain Dalzell, to Niagara, with ordei-s to 
gather all the forces it would be safe to detach from the lower 
forts and with them to proceed to Gladwyn's relief Dalzell, 
a brave but impetuous ofiicer, who had shared with Israel 
Putnam in many of his adventures, accepted the service with 
pleasure. Early in July he was en route up the Lake, with 
two hundred and eighty men and twenty-two barges, A land- 
ing was made at the desolated posts of Presqu' Isle and San- 
dusky. From the latter he marched (July 26th) with a section 
of his force, upon the Wyandot town, a few miles to the south. 
This he destroyed, together- with its cornfields and its orchards. 
The expedition then hurried on to the Detroit river. Un- 
der cover of a fog — rare, indeed, on that stream so late in the 
season — the flotilla passed up in safety during the night of 
July 28th and the morning of the 29th. The vicinity of the 
Wyandot and Pottawatamie villages was reached ere the con- 
voy was discovered, when these savages at once forgot their 
late treaty, and a heavy attack was made. Fifteen of the 
troops were killed and wounded. Dalzell replied with mus- 
ketry and boat howitzers, so hotly as to drive thf red-skins 
from their coverts on the shore. The barge-, then pulled for 
the fort, where they were received with the y^ildefct acduma- 



78 THE CONSPIRACY OF PONTIAC. 

tions. The men were not made more welcome than the rich 
supply of stores and ammunition which thej convoyed. 

Dalzell, upon the day of his arrival, concerted an attack on 
the Ottawa village. Gladwyn discouraged the enterprise, con- 
ceiving it, doubtless, as rash and perilous to court disaster. 
Dalzell's importunity, however, bore down opposition and it 
became known throughout the garrison that an attack was to 
be made. This imprudent revelation was fatal to success. 
Two hours after it was known in the fort Pontiac was in pos- 
session of the plan, and, without delay, arranged to ambuscade 
the English. 

The march to the Ottawa camp was along the river road to 
the creek, one mile and a half above the fort. Near the creek 
crossing was the house of Meloche. The Ottawa village had 
been located just bej^ond the bridge, on the ridges ; but, scourg- 
ed by the vessels' fire, it was removed up the creek, tlii'ee miles 
away. Dalzell's plan was to march by night upon the village 
and surprise the savages : Pontiac's plan was to ambuscade 
the English at the bridge and surprise them with defeat. The 
English left the fort, at two o'clock on the morning of July 
81st, two hundred and fifty strong. Two barges followed by 
the river, to co-operate with their swivels. The men pressed 
on to the creek. Over the little bridge the advance guard of 
twenty -five was passing when, from their front burst the war- 
whoop of two hundred savages, lurking in the darkness behind 
trees, fences, woodpiles, houses and stumps. The yells were 
followed by a discharge of rifles which brought down half the 
advance. It staggered before the unexpected blow and receded 
upon the centre. Dalzell rushed to the front, rallied the line 
and led the men in person over the bridge. Again the appall- 
ing whoop, followed by a volley which brought the troops to 
a stand. But they quickly recovered, and, led by Dalzell and 
' Captain GTray, the centre of the detachment charged upon the 
ridges over the stream, on which the Indians had taken 
post. But the alert warriors glided away into the darkness ; 
the troops charged in vain against woodpiles and fences ; not 
a savage could be discovered until the sharp crack of a rifle, 
from some near cover, betrayed the momentary presence of an 



BATTLE OF BLOODY RUN. 79 

Indian. Tliis warfare witli an invisible foe so disconcerted 
tlie men tliat Dalzell wisely resolved to withdraw to the south 
side of the creek, there to await day-light before pressing his 
advance. The retreat was made in good order, under a heavy 
and galling fire. Watchful as lynxes the Ottawa warriors kei3t 
close to their game, and, had the night been more favorable to 
true aim not a man of all that command would have been left 
alive by daybreak. The two barges, drawn up to the bridge, 
received the wounded and dead. Captain Grant in command 
of the rear detachment soon found that the assailants had 
crossed the creek, for they were upon his flank and rear al- 
most as soon as the troops began to retire from the ridge. 
Having the cover of Meloche's house, orchard, fences and out- 
buildings, the assault was opened from them so sharply that 
Grant ordered his men to charge. As in every instance the 
bayonet found no enemy to pinion : the Indians glided away 
with the silence and rapidity of reptiles. In Meloche's house 
two Canadians were found who informed Grant of Pontiac's 
design of getting in between the English and the fort — thus to 
cut off all escape. The news was communicated to Dalzell, 
and quick steps taken to guard the road so as to keep up the 
line of retreat. The entire command soon began the retrograde 
movement — Grant on the lead and Dalzell covering the rear. 
The savages were now reenforced by bodies of "Wyandots and 
Pottawatamies. These, with a body of Ottawas, Pontiac post- 
ed at a point where the attack would find the Englij^h com- 
pacted and less able to move in body, Arrived at this posi- 
tion the Indians attacked with great fury, throwing the regulars 
into a panic which well nigh proved fatal. Only Dalzell's 
great courage and power of command saved his men from 
butchery. The savages had grasped their tomahawks prepa- 
ratory to a hand to hand struggle, when the column reformed 
again and was pushed forward in good order. Major Eogers, 
with his band of rangers, was ubiquitous. These men, skilled 
in Indian warfare, fought the red-men successfully. They 
lurked behind trees and fences, stole along through the grass, 
bounded around barns and houses sending then- knives into 
many a savage breast 



80 THE CONSPIEACT OF PONTIAC. 

This fierce struggle contimied the entire distance to within 
range of the palisade guns. Captain Gray fell mortally wound- 
ed in a charge upon a fence; Dalzell was killed, and his reek- 
ing scalp torn from his head in sight of his men. Eogers 
finally flung his force into a house which commanded the road 
and thus effectually covered the retreat, after Dalzell's fall. 
Grant had also obtained a good position in an orchard, where 
he kept the savages at bay while the main body passed down 
the road. Here he was joined by Rogers and, together, these 
intrepid leaders so manoeuvred from house to house as to hold 
the fortunes of the retreat safely. It was eight o'clock ere the 
last of that ill-fated expedition reentered the gates. ' 

The returns gave the losses as nineteen killed and forty-two 
wounded — a small number considering the nature of the con- 
test. It would have been much greater had the darkness and 
the fog been less dense. Much was due, also, to the splendid 
manoeuvering of Grant and Rogers, after day-light had come. 
The loss of the Indians could not have been great. 

The result of this combat — called by historians the " battle 
of Bloody Run" — was to reinspire the Indians in their causa 
They soon spread the news of their victory — magnified of 
course in its report of numbers — far and wide, receiving in re- 
turn accessions from various tribes, until fully one thousand 
warriors invested Detroit. Yet, no assault was attempted. 
With the force then in the fort — fully three hundred strong — 
Gladwyn was in a position to defy his assailants ; he had, ap- 
parently, only to await the passage of time to free him of his 
troublesome enemies. 

* The account given by Drake in his work — " The Biography and History of the 
Indians of North America" — is singularly at variance with the version here adopt- 
ed, though that author so far corrects the " popular version" as to publish Major 
Gladwyn's report of the " Battle of Detroit." That report varies in immaterial 
particulars from that given by Parkman, and which we have preferred to follow. 
The latter author recites many interesting incidents of the affair gathered from the 
descendants of persons then living in or around Detroit. General Lewis Cass hav- 
ing collected the material for a History of the Siege of Detroit, obtained much 
personal data, to which Mr. Parkman had access. The production of Parkman's 
work doubtless prevented General Cass from fulfilling his first design, though he 
had contributed several valuable papers to the Michigan Historical Society bear- 
ing on those interesting times and events. The celebrated Pontiac Ms. often re- 
ferred to, ia, we believe, deposited in the archives of the Society. 



ATTACK ON" THE VESSEL. 81 

After the fight of Bloody Eun nothing save occasional sharp, 
shooting occurred to break the monotony of the siege until 
September 5th, when the second arrival of the little schooner, 
dispatched to Niagara in July, gave the garrison fresh food for 
excitement, inasmuch as, during the previous night, she had 
been boarded by over three hundred savages, and yet had es- 
caped. The story of that adventure was as follows : 

The vessel, having a crew of eleven men — with six Mohawk 
Indians, sent by Amherst as spies and scouts — entered Detroit 
river on the 3d of September (1763). The succeeding morning 
the Mohawks were permitted to go ashore to scout. They 
never returned, but made their way direct to the villages above 
to give the alarm. The Captain felt keenly his danger, but 
contrary winds kept him from going up the stream. That 
night, about nine o'clock, a great number of canoes were seen 
rushing down upon him, and, almost before the bow gun could 
be I discharged, the horde of savages was swarming over the 
bulwarks. Delivering one volley of musketry the crew threw 
d( iwn their guns and rushed upon the boarders with pike and 
ci.-tlass. A furious hand-to-hand contest followed, in which it 
■w as soon apparent that the whites must be overpowered. The 
Captain being killed, the first mate — a very resolute fellow na- 
D'.ed Jacobs — held command. Seeing the savages about to 
accomplish their design, he ordered one of his men to fire the 
i.iagazine and blow up the vessel. The order was understood 
by a "civilized" Wyandot, who repeated it in horror, and, vrith 
a loud yell, leaped overboard. In a twinkling the entire mass 
of red-skinned humanity was gone. Warriors decked in gay 
attire and bedaubed in artistic grease, soot and vermillion, 
dashed overboard like frogs, and, for a few moments were seen 
fluttering and ducking in the river in the most grotesque haste 
to avoid the expected explosion. They soon disappeared en- 
tirely ; in less than ten minutes from the first gun, all was si- 
lent again. The crew's loss was two killed and four badly 
wounded. Eight savages were killed on the decks and nbout 
twenty wounded — of whom eight were reported soon to have 
died. The vessel passed on up the river the succeeding morn- 
ing (Sept 5th), reaching the fort in safety. For their bravery 



82 THE CONSPIRACY OF PONTIAC. 

the crew was rewarded with silver medals struck by order of 
the commander-in-chief, commemorating the event.' 

This second addition to the garrison's supplies quite dis- 
heartened the beleaguering host. Winter was approaching 
and their own necessities soon must drive them to the woods 
if they would save their families from staiTation. Their am- 
munition also was fast running low, threatening to leave them 
powerless to secure their winter's food. Then came the news 
of a heavy reenforcement en route for Detroit, sufiicient to car- 
ry the war into their villages. It was time for them to make 
peace, if only to gain time to recruit their energies for another 
year's work of slaughter. After conferences among the con- 
fedi'ates a chief of the Missisaugas — a branch of the great Ojib 
wa family — appeared at the fort October 12th. In a talk wi th 
Gladwyn he professed to represent the Ojibwas, Wyandcts 
and Pottawatamies, who were sincerely sorry for their bid 
conduct and had sent him to beg forgiveness and peace. To 
this Gladwyn replied by granting a truce — a peace could oi? ly 
be secured through Sir William Johnson, His Majestj^'s Con- 
missioner of Indian Affairs. The policy of this truce will be 
apparent when it is stated that Gladwyn's stores were ev^n 
then at a starvation point — his men all being upon short al- 
lowance; and, should the promised reenforcement under Major 
Wilkins fail, by any mishap, to reach him, he would be com- 
pelled to evacuate the post. A truce opened communication^ 
for a few days at least, with the habitans around ; and Gladwyn 
used it so well that, ere a week had passed, the fort was sup- 
plied with meat, corn and potatoes enough for a winter's siege. 

The Ottawas held aloof from this arrangement, although 
they did not, so far as we can learn, show hostility to their 
allies. Pontiac doubtless consented to it as the only means of 

1 The account given by Sir Jeffrey Amherst, of this gallant affair, represented 
the Indians to have been fairly repulsed by the crew, and no reference is made to 
the incident here recorded, of Jacobs' order to blow up the vessel. The incident 
is well authenticated, however, in the several Ms. accounts obtained by General 
Cass from the oid Canadian inhabitants, as well as by several cotemporary writers. 
See Pennsylvania Gazette No. 1816. Drake's account of the event differs in almost 
every particular from the version here given. There evidently is a vast difference 
between his industry and care, and that exhibited by Parkman. 



RAISING OF THE SIEGE. 83 

preserving any future authority over tlie tribes ; he submitted 
to what he could not prevent. Still, the warriors of his tribe 
proudly kept up a show of hostility, more as a matter of pride 
than of effect. They sought to worry foraging parties, to cut 
off stragglers, and kept the fort under close surveillance, but 
accomplished little. How much longer Pontiac would have 
fretted against the bars shutting out even his hopes of success 
it is not hard to determine. On the last day of October (1763) 
he received answers to his demands for help, dispatched months 
before to the French stations in the Mississippi valley. M. Ne- 
yon, commander of Fort Chartres, the chief fort and depot in 
the Illinois country, wrote to the Ottawa Chief that the French 
being at peace with the English no assistance could be ren- 
dered, and he therefore advised Pontiac to cease a warfare 
which could do no good. This note was, it would appear, 
written by M. Neyon at the demand of Sir Jeffrey Amhertit ; 
and the fact that it was not written until so demanded sho r^s 
the French to have connived at the war even if they could 
offer no aid. But, it is folly to presume that Pontiac had 
based his dreams upon the contingencies of their co-operation. 
We conceive it an improbable inference that, for the first time, 
after the receipt of M. Neyon's letter he beheld "his long 
cherished hopes of assistance from the French swept away at 
once," as Parkman has it. He knew, long before, of the treaty 
of Paris ; he had received no voluntary assistance even from 
the Canadian hahitans, save such as we have referred to as 
having been given by a few ruffians and half-breeds ; and M. 
Neyon's letter added nothing to his " weight of disappoint- 
ment." Parkman adds : " he saw himself and his people thrown 
back upon their own slender resources. In rage and mortifi- 
cation he left Detroit, and, with a number of his chiefs, repair- 
ed to the river Maumee, with the design of stirring up the 
Indians in that quarter and renewing hostilities in the spring," 
That letter, indeed, was propitious to the designs of the Chief, 
since it enabled him to deceive his followers once more by 
putting on the semblance of mortification and rage to cover his 
exit to the south. 

The siege of Detroit by the savages tlius was raised, to give 
11 



84 THE CONSPIRACY OF PONTIAC. 

place to tlie siege by winter's frosts, storms and snows — a siege 
dreaded even to this day, when tlie comforts of civilization are 
attainable even by the poor. The Indians of all the tribes 
scattered during October to the woods, in their depths to find 
the game required for their subsistence, and to court the shel- 
ter from storms which the grand old arches of the wilderness 
gave to all. 

From this point the conspiracy proper is merged in the his- 
tory of Sir William Johnson's diplomacy as Indian Commis- 
sioner General ; of Bradstreet's campaign to Ohio and Detroit, 
from Niagara ; of Bouquet's expedition into the Muskingum 
country from Fort Pitt, and of the mission of Captain Morris 
to the Wabash country — all of which transpired during the 
summer and fall of 1764. These several enterprises were con- 
certed by the Lords of Trade, as preliminary to a new policy 
of kindness and conciliation to be pursued toward the Indians 
af^er they should be made to feel England's power. Sir Wil- 
liam Johnson ' and his deputy George Croghan were strenuous 
in their efforts to instate such a policy, but they conceded the 
ini possibility of employing it until the savages were first 

* Sir William Johnson was a man of remarkable traits. An Irishman by birth, 
he emigrated, when a young man, to the Mohawk valley, and there soon rose to 
wealth and importance, gaining a great influence over the Iroquois tribes, after- 
wards called the Six Nations. During the French war this influence was exercised 
go successfully for the English as to keep the Iroquois from the field except as al- 
lies of the English. He acted also as a Major-General in the war,' and, with the 
Colonial troops and a small body of Iroquois, won an important victory over the 
French under Baron Deskau, at Lake George. This success gave him a baronetcy 
and a present of five thousand pounds sterling. He was then appointed Superin- 
tendent of Indian Affairs for the Northern tribes — an office for which he was ad- 
mirably qualified, by courage, sagacity, knowledge of Indian character and influ- 
ence over the savages. In 1759 by the death of Prideaux, the Commanding-Gene- 
ral at Niagara, he was placed in the chief command, and, after a severe battle 
routed the French, planting the cross of St. George on the old stronghold. After 
the peace he so far maintained his power and ascendancy over the tribes in New 
York as to prevent them from joining in the Pontiac conspiracy — the Senecas only 
giving way to their thirst for blood, under the malign influence of the Delawares. 

The late Colonel Wm. L. Stone, in the course of gathering materials for 
bis most excellent Life of Brandt (Thayendanega) Chief of the Six Nations, bp.camc 
possessed of much valuable original data regarding Johnson. This he prepared 
with a view to its publication, but, unhapily for our historical literature, the author 
died before completiug his task. 



THE NIAGARA GRAND COUNCIL. 85 

brought into subjection by force of arms. The programme 
]aid out for 1764 was to put two armies in the field, one under 
Bouquet to reach the Delawares, Shawnese and Miamis ; the 
other under Bradstreet to penetrate to Detroit, punishing every 
tribe which had shown hostility in Pontiac's war. 

Prior to the departure of these two expeditionary armies, 
Johnson had sent out runners of the Iroquois, calling a grand 
council to assemble at Niagara. Those who would escape the 
impending blow he warned to make their peace by attending 
this council. Bradstreet arrived at Niagara late in July, 1764, 
to find a host of Indians encamped around — in answer to 
Johnson's summons. The baronet's messengers had penetrat- 
ed to the North and West, finding all the tribes who had en- 
gaged in the war in a state of much destitution, owing to the 
sudden cessation of the fur trade and their losses by the war. 
They were therefore all the better disposed to a peace. Even 
the wild Ojibwas, who had then been summoned by Pontiac 
to again take the field before Detroit, preferred to accept 
Johnson's overtures and soon started their deputation to the 
council. Nor were the Ottawas unrepresented in that gather- 
ing of aboriginal notabilities — the section of the tribe at 
LArbre Ch^oche^ under the good priest Jonois, sending a deputa- 
tion. But they were the " Christian Indians" whom Pontiac 
scorned : not a member of his people was at the council. 

Johnson opened proceedings by first treating with the In- 
dians separately — a tedious but politic process. In this man- 
ner he made peace with the Sacs, Foxes, Winnebagoes, Meno- 
monies, Mississaugas, Caughnawagas, Ojibwas, the L'Arbre 
Croche Ottawas and a small deputation of the Detroit Wyan- 
dots. From these he extracted solemn promises of good faith, 
and they returned to their peripatetic homes filled with rum 
and loaded with presents. All were well pleased with the in- 
terview. The Shawnese and Delawares sent to the council 
the insulting messnge that they would treat for peace out of 
pity for the " old women" (the English). 

These proceedings ended, Bradstreet started for the West, 
accompanied by a large body of the Iroquois and by many 
Canadians. His orders were to proceed first to Sandusky, 



86 THE CONSPIRACY OF PONTIAC. 

carrying war into the villages and country of the Wj-andots, 
Ottawas and Miamie. Arriving near Presqu' Isle, August 
12th, the expedition was forced, by a storm of wind and rain, 
to land. There Bradstreet was met b}^ a band of savages, who, 
proclaiming themselves to be Shawnese and Delawares depu- 
ties, sought terms of peace for those tribes. They were a band 
of warriors out on the war-path, who assumed the guise of 
agents for the purpose of testing tbe mettle of the English 
commander. He appears to have been a self-willed, unsaga- 
cious man. Against the advice of his officers, against the pro- 
test and warning of his Indian allies, that the pretended depu- 
ties were spies, he entered into a preliminary treaty to refrain 
from attacking their tribes — they stipulating to meet him with 
all their white prisoners at Sandusky, there to conclude a de- 
finitive treaty. As Bradstreet was not empowered to treat at 
all — as the Shawnese and Delawares were not in his province 
— as Bouquet was especially commissioned to act against these 
tribes, Bradstreet's conduct certainly merited the censure af- 
terwards bestowed upon it by the Commander-in-Chief, Gene- 
ral Gage. Bradstreet sent word to Bouquet, then preparing 
to advance from Fort Pitt (now Pittsburg), that he might fore- 
go his expedition as the Shawnese and Delawares were already 
reduced to terms ! The vigorous and sagacious Bouquet treat- 
ed the affair as it deserved — with contempt, and hastened to 
push into the territory of the treacherous and relentless South- 
ern Ohio tribes. Even wbile these pretended emissaries had 
stipulated for peace their warriors were marching along the 
whole Pennsylvania and Virginia frontier; nor did they abate 
in atrocity until Bouquet's ba^^onets had forced the demons to 
a full submission and the rendition of every white captive in 
their keeping. 

After this exploit Bradstreet rowed along shore with his 
great flotilla until Sandusky was reached. There the same 
wretched farce was gone through with of accepting the " sub- 
mission" of the Wyandots ; while Captain Morris, with a small 
body guard of Canadians and Indians, was dispatched to the 
Maumee country to treat with Pontiac, with orders also to pro- 
ceed on up to the Wabash country there to treat with the Mi- 



MISSION OF CAPTAIN MORRIS. 87 

amis. Garrisoning Fort Sandusky Bradstreet pushed on to 
Detroit, arriving there August 26th, 1764. He was received 
with a frenzy of joy by the long beleaguered garrison, who 
were at once relieved from duty. The siege of Detroit was 
raised. A grand council was at once called, and on the 7th of 
September he met, in the open air, a full delegation of the 
Wyandots, and a single deputy, the Chief Wasson, who repre- 
sented the Ottawas, Pottawatamies, Ojibwas, Miamis and Sacs. 
These he addressed through a French interpreter — an act which 
so incensed his allies, the Iroquois, that they refused to shake 
hands, to confirm terms which they did not understand. That 
simple act, together with Bradstreet's generally pusillanimous 
conduct, so unpleasantly impressed them that when they 
sought their homes it was in disgust and anger ; nor could Sir 
Wm. Johnson's potent influence reconcile them. They became 
sullen though not hostile — a state of affairs particularly to be 
regretted at that time when a general reconciliation and frater- 
nization was hoped for. Bradstreet readily obtained from the 
obsequious savages the promises he demanded. 

Pontiac had invested Detroit with many of his warriors 
during the spring and summer, keeping the garrison in a con- 
stant state of alarm. At Bradstreet's approach he withdrew 
to the Mauraee country, there to keep the fires of vengeance 
burning by the power of his great influence and his resistless 
eloquence. There Captain Morris found him, and at his hands 
received such a welcome as proved the Chief to be little in- 
clined to peace. Dispatched, in August, to the Maumee coun- 
try, Morris proceeded from Sandusky by the Lake to Maumee, 
and thence by canoes up that stream until the vicinity of the 
Ottawa villages was reached. He encountered a horde 
of braves whose feeling toward the Englishman was made 
strikingly manifest by menacing gestures and rough usaga 
At the village he was confronted by Pontiac in person. The 
Chief scowled ominously at the missionary and refused to ac- 
cept his extended hand. " The English are liars ! " he ejacu- 
lated, at the same time producing a letter purjDorting to have 
been written by the King of the French to him, promising aid 
and co-operation. This epistle of course was a forgery, but it 



88 THE CONSPIRACY OF PONTIAC. 

served to give tlie Chief a tangible excuse for hia continued 
hostility. Morris could obtain no hearing; his party were 
stripped of their property, though he was permitted to 
pursue his journey to the country above. At old Fort Miami 
he barely escaped murder at the hands of the Miamis. The 
fort was in possession of some Canadian traders, who desired 
to offer him protection, and did so, although it was apparent 
that his life might be sacrificed at any moment. A deputation 
from the blood-thirsty Shawnese and Delawares had arrived 
with war-belts, but a short time before him ; Morris, hence, 
found the Miamis ready to co-operate in the general war pro- 
posed. These treacherous tribes were treating with the too- 
easily duped Bradstreet for peace at the very moment they 
were stirring up the western Indians to an exterminating war. 
Their proceedings with Bradstreet and their efforts to stay the 
progress of Colonel Bouquet's force were solely to gain time 
for a general uprising — a scheme in which we can readily con- 
ceive Pontiac to have entered with a leader's zeal. Morris was 
finally taken from the fort by two Miami warriors, stripped 
and led bound to the great village, passing to what he deemed 
his martyrdom at the stake. He was surrounded by the rab- 
ble and received with an uproar of epithets. Two of his Ca- 
nadian attendants followed, resolved to save him at the 
risk of their lives. A leading Miami chief, named Swan, also 
interposed, and, sustained by a young chief — a nephew of Pon- 
tiac — severed the bonds of the captive.' Morris then took 
courage and essayed to speak, when a chief named White Cat 
again seized him and bound him fast by his neck to the faggot 
post. At this a chief, named Peccane, interposed and, in great 
fury, bade them to go for English meat to Detroit. The Eng- 
lishman came as an ambassador and should be protected. He 
was released, yet only escaped the fury of his persecutors by 
being closely protected. He was at length permitted to return 

> This act, it is probable was a stroke of policy. Godefroy, one of Morris' Ca- 
nadian attendants, told the Indian that Gladwyn had a number of Ottawa warriors 
in his hands as prisoners, and that any harm to Morris would be the signal for 
then- death. This fact, expressed by the Canadian boldly, doubtless saved Morris 
from the stake. 



bradstreet's expedition. 89 

to Maumee — several chiefs acting as a body-guard, in addition 
to his faithful Iroquois and Canadian attendants, who never, 
for a moment, had failed to sustain him. 

Thus the " embassy" was ended. Morris returned exhaust- 
ed and dispirited to Detroit — arriving there Sept. 17th, 1764, 
to find Bradstreet gone. Having dispatched garrisons to re- 
occupy the posts at Green Bay, Michilmacinac and Sault Ste 
Marie, and leaving with Gladwyn a force sufficient for effective 
defense, the Colonel returned to Sandusky, with the main body 
of his troops, to complete his arrangements with the deputies of 
the Shawnese and Delawares, with whom, it will be remem- 
bered, he had stipulated to treat. Arriving at Sandusky he 
awaited several days over the ajjpoiuted time, but no deputies, 
with their promised train of white captives, appeared. A few 
warriors, lurking upon his track as spies, appeared in the Bii- 
tish camp and begged a further delay, promising that, if Brad- 
street would remain quiet for another week the prisoners 
should be forthcoming. The foolish commander acceded to 
their request ; instead of seizing the rascals as hostages for 
the fulfilment of their promises, he allowed them to depart on 
their mission of arousing the savages to oppose any march into 
the country. Had Bradstreet essayed to penetrate to their 
villages he would have found the Otto was, Miamas, Wyandots 
and Shawnese in his war-path in such numbers as would have 
rendered his track a bloody one, even if the army was not 
overcome. During that week's delay, however, Bradstreet 
was put in possession of General Gage's rebuke, already refer- 
red to, repudiating his proceedings and ordering him to pro- 
ceed without delay to execute his orders on the Sandusky 
tribes, then to push for the Sciota country, there to effect a 
junction with Bouquet. Then soon came the journal kept by 
Captain Morris, dispatched ffom Detroit Bradsti-eet's e}-es 
were now fully opened to his folly, yet he had not the cour- 
age to obey orders and march to the Sciota country. Con- 
ceiving various excuses for inaction after several weeks 
longer tarry at Sandusky Bay he started to return to Niagara 
with his entire force — a company of regulars being left to gar- 
rison the fort. The flotilla had scarcely emerged from the 



90 THE COXSPIRACY OF PONTIAC. 

beautiful hay into tlie open lake beyond Cedar Point ere a 
storm gathered and for three days the expedition was tempest- 
tossed. Many of the boats were beached, others were leaky. 
Ee -gathering his forces, it was found that the barges were too 
few to convey the troops. Most of the Iroquois and a detach- 
ment of provincial militia were thereupon ordered to march 
along the shore, to Niagara — a distance of over two hundred 
and thirty miles, through jungles, over streams and swamps, 
with no equipments and provisions except such as they could 
carry on their backs. It was an inhuman order, and, had the 
Shawnese been in the vicinity, the entire band must have per- 
ished. As it was, they reached Niagara, after a seventeen 
days' march, the provincials in miserable plight, and the Iro- 
quois so thoroughly infuriated and disgusted as to be rendered 
enemies of the English instead of friends. Thus this expedi- 
tion, promising auspiciously at the outset, ended with half-ac- 
complished purposes. It had reinvigorated Detroit, regarri- 
soned several of the forts taken by the savages, and distracted 
tlie Indian confederation so far as to drive Pontiac into Ohio 
fc>r his allies ; but, the formidable Chief was neither brought 
to a treaty nor forced to submission; those hyenas of the 
woods, the Shawnese, and the equally implacable Delawares, 
still were on the war-path, desolating the border and keeping 
alive the fires of the conspiracy: Bradstreet is justly censured 
for his short comings, which were serious indeed. Had Sir 
William Johnson's influence been less the entire Iroquois con- 
federacy (Six Nations) might have drifted into the league of 
savages against the whites, so dissatisfied were they with the 
English military commander. 

Bat, good came of Bouquet's conduct of the campaign into 
the Muskingum territory. Into the forest fastnesses beyond 
the Muskingum river the Shawnese and Delawares had re- 
moved their villages, preparatory to a vigorous prosecution of 
their war of extirpation. All the long summer those sav- 
ages continued their butcheries penetrating to the east of the 
AUeghanies with torch and tomahawk. Villages supposed 
to be secure ; quiet vallies, up and down whose slopes 
stretched farms and dwellings ; old trading posts, given over 



COLONEL bouquet's E XP ED ITI IST. 91 

to 'lecfiy as too near the haunts of civilization — all were made 
to feel the terror of Shawnee and Delaware visitation. To stay 
this barbarous butchery the efforts of the settlers and local 
forces were powerless : * it was necessray to carry the war into 
the Indian country, to burn their villages, to ravage their corn- 
fields and to crush the warriors in battle, in order to compel 
the blood-thirsty wretches to terms. To this work Bouquet 
was assigned. A better man could not have been chosen. His 
experience during the previous year at the sanguinary battle 
of Bushy Eun proved him to be of the right mettle, while his 
discretion and wisdom were known and trusted. The savages 
feared him as they soon learned to despise Bradstreet ; and 
when it was found that the latter's order for the other to dis- 
continue his expedition from Fort Pitt was to be disregarded — 
that Bouquet was to carry the war into their very villages, the 
barbarians first began to think of peace. 

Bouquet, with his five hundred Highlanders, one thousand 
provincials and a strong body of skilled Yirginia and Mary- 
land border men, penetrated to the wilderness where several 
offending tribes had deemed their families safe. The middle 
of October found him over the Muskingum river, prepared to 
carry devastation into every village. His enemy, beholding 
the ruin and suffering in store for them, convinced that no 
perfidy and treachery could avail to save them fi-om puaish- 
ment, hastened to make terms of peace. A nan-ative of the 
ceremonies and negotiations which followed forms a very in- 
teresting chapter in the history of the war. By the prudence, 
the stem decision, the sagacity and the justice of Bouquet 
every object of his mission was accomplished without destroy- 

» Among other measures adopted to encourage tlie settlers and others to hunt 
the Indians the Governor of Pennsylvania issued a proclamation offering a bounty 
on the scalps of Indian men and women. This act has by some been regarded as 
a barbarous measure ; but, when it is known that the " braves" were sustained 
on the war-path by the labor and prowess of their squaws — that the squaws never 
failed to wreak a horrible vengeance upon every captive— that, when occasioa 
ofiFered, the Indian women assisted in massacre — it must be a very Quaker con- 
science which can censure the proclamation. The Indian women were as fero- 
cious as the Indian men, and it could be scarcely expected that settlers whose 
hearth-stones were yet warm with the blood of their murdered wives and innocent 
littis ones would submit to & partial punishment of their detested foe. 

12 



92 THE CONSPIRACY OF PONTIAC 

ing a single field of corn or tlie injury of a single family. 
Sliawnese, Delawares, a seceded section of the Senecas, a vil- 
lage of the Tuscaroras, all were brought to humiliation and 
subjection. Captives to the number of two hundred, embrac- 
ing men, women and children, were restored ; some of the wo- 
men having been taken by the savages as wives, their children 
by the unnatural alliance were not permitted to remain — all 
were restored to civilization and their homes. What a pain- 
fully joyous meeting must it have been when those long-lost 
ones were restored to their broken households ! Alas, how 
many never returned ! * Parkman, in his narrative of Bouquet's 
expedition, dwells at considerable length upon the scenes and 
incidents which transpired during these interesting and event- 
ful moments of reunion. 

Where was Pontiac? In the midst of all these calamities 
to his cause the proud Chief still held a defiant front. One by 
one his allies left his side — the Ojibwas, Pottawatamies and 
Wyandots first ; then the Shawnese and Delawares, upon 
whose strength he rested in security. He witnessed the move- 
ments of Bradstreet and Bouquet, powerless to oppose them ; 
but, his fertile mind was concocting new combinations to carry 
on his wild crusade against civilization. In the fall of 1764 
we find him once more on the scene of operations. His rest- 
less spirit, undaunted by discouragement, now arose in mighty 
majesty ; his Conspiracy took new form. ; his power once more 
became formidable to the English. 

His plan now was to unite all the warriors of the Mississippi 
valley in a league of hostility against the English, to prevent 
them from taking possession of the forts in that section ceded 
by the treaty of Paris. With four hundred warriors, composed 
of chiefs and noted braves of several tribes who scorned to 
make peace — of Miamis, Ottawas, Shawnese, Delawares, Sene- 
cas and Wyandots — the Conspirator started in the autumn of 
176-i on a grand embassy to the West. The route lay through 

' Many cases are well authenticated where young girls were wooed and won by 
bronze lovers, and so attached did the " wives" become to their dusky partners 
that they refused to leave their wigwams. This class of persons, though females, 
always exercised considerable influence in every village. 



PONTIAC AT THE WEST. 93 

the country of tlie Miamis, Kickapoos, PiankisTiaws and of tlie 
Illinois tribes. In every village his imperious spirit found ut- 
terance in words winged with the eloquence which ever stire 
a savage breast, and the war-song went up along his path. 
Arrived in the country of the Illinois he found himself in the 
midst of French whose hatred of the English was little less 
than his own. By these men he was cajoled with promises of 
aid never destined to fulfilment. They represented mattere in 
very false colors, and, it is said, really impressed Pontiac with 
the belief in aid from the King of the French. In expectation 
of this aid the Chief visited Fort Chartres, on the Mississippi 
river, where the French were still in command and possession. 
M. Neyon de Villiers, angered and humiliated at the cession 
of French possession, in the Illinois country to the detested 
English, had withdrawn from his post and gone down to New 
Orleans, where he fondly supposed the French were to remain 
masters. His command was turned over to M. St Ange de 
Bellerive, an old officer who had spent a lifetime in this Indian 
service. This officer was greatly perplexed at the anomalous 
state of affairs which surrounded him. A French commander, 
with a French garrison, surrounded by French trading posts 
and Indians all devoted to the French interest, he was only 
awaiting a relief garrison to transfer all to English possession. 
He could therefore do nothing but wait. Beset by savages 
clamorous for their usual supply of powder and guns, by trad- 
ers soliciting aid he could not give, by agents stirring up the 
Indians to hostility against those to assume the control of af- 
fairs, his position was one of perplexity from which there was 
no escape. It was not rendered any the less intolerable by the 
sudden advent of Pontiac and his band of four hundred reso- 
lute warriors. The haughty Chief was prepared to demand 
aid as his right, and did so in terms which St. Ange could not 
mistake. But the French commander really was powerless to 
comply with the request for arms and ammunition, and so an- 
swered, much to the Chief's anger and disgust The stern 
warriors encamped around the Fort, evidently resolved to 
make it their resting place to await the appearance of the 
English, when the fires of warfare were again to be lit 



94: THE CONSPIEACY OF PONTIAC. 

The delay at tliis point was, for anotlier reason, somewhat 
imperative. When the embassy first started for the West 
Pontiac prepared an immense wampum belt, which was dis- 
patched to the tribes of the South, by the hands of a delega- 
tion of well-known Shawnee, Delaware, Miami and Ottawa 
chiefs. This belt was borne down the Mississippi river to all 
the tribes along its boundaries. Everywhere it was received 
with great ceremonies, and, in every instance, so far as the 
record exists, did not fail to stir up the spirit of strife. Ponti- 
ac's name was well known to every warrior of note even among 
those living in the far South, and his embassy was accredited 
with all the respect due to a chief whom the savages all ac- 
knowledged as their superior. The wampum, after having 
visited all available tribes, was finally borne to New Orleans, 
there to lay it before the French Governor, and, in Pontiac's 
name, to demand of him aid in guns, ammunition and stores, 
with which to carry on the war against the English. The ac- 
credited warriors appeared in the Southern city at an unpro- 
pitious time. They were, indeed, most unwelcome. The 
French Governor, M. D'Abbadie, was then very ill from ex- 
citement and chagrin. But a few weeks previous to the Indian 
advent the news was promulgated that, by a' secret convention, 
France had transferred to Spain all her possessions in the Lou- 
isiana territory. This filled the cup of bitterness for the proud 
and really able Frenchman at the head of affaii's, and he await- 
ed the arrival of the Spanish garrison and Governor to quit 
the country in disgust 

Pontiac's messengers were not to be deterred from pressing 
their claims upon D'Abbadie, and a council was granted, to 
which a number of English ofiicers were admitted. A Shaw- 
nee chief, displaying the great war-belt, spake for the embassy. 
Parkma;n thus reports the speech : 

" These red dogs" alluding to the English, " have crowded 
us more and more, and, when we ask them by what right they 
come, they tell us that you, our French fathers, have given 
them our lands. We know that they lie. These lands are 
neither yours nor theirs, and no man shall give or sell them 
without oui' consent. Fathers, we have always been your 



DEATH OF M. d'ABBADIE. 95 

faithful cliildren, and we now have come to ask you that you 
will give us guns, powder and lead, to aid us in this war." 

The extreme feebleness of D'Abbadie prevented much of a 
reply. He strove to appease their evident excitement and dis- 
missed them with orders to have them cared for as his guests. 
That night he died, and, at the council of the succeeding day, 
his successor, M. Aubry, failed to answer satisfactorily to the 
Indians' demand. A Miami chief made a fierce speech, full 
of bitterness toward the French for being conquered, and of 
hate toward the English. " As for you," he exclaimed, turn- 
ing toward the English officers present, " our hearts burn with 
rage when we think of the ruin you have brought on us." M. 
Aubry declared it his wish that the Indians should be at peace 
— that the English meant no harm and would treat them well 
if they behaved well. A few presents were distributed among 
the thoroughly infuriated ambassadors, and, early on the mor- 
row, they were paddling their canoes up the Mississippi, their 
hearts thoroughly surcharged with the inry of disappointed 
hope and disgust at the impotence of their old friends aind 
fathers, the French. They bore in their keeping the woids 
which must forever dash Pontiac's hopes of aid from any source ; 
and, without arms, how powerless was he even with ten thou- 
sand braves at his call ! 

The embassy reached Fort Chartres on its return in Febru- 
ary, 1765. Pontiac had awaited the coming of his agents with 
much anxiety. We can imagine the rage which filled hia 
proud and defiant soul at the request sent by the French Gov 
emor of New Orleans for him to make peace with the English. 
Yet, what could he do? The all conquering English were 
pressing in fi-om the East. Croghan, the deputy of Sir William 
Johnson, was, even then, after immeasurable peril, in the Illi- 
nois country, having entered successfully on his mission of 
pacification. One by one the Western tribes passed from the 
power of his savage control to accept the terms tendered by 
the English agent. There remained for the Chief but two 
courses to pursue : one, escape to the west of the Mississippi, 
where dwelt the wild and powerful Dacotah, the remorseless 
and intractable Sioux, the subtle and suspicious Osages — not 



96 THE CONSPIRACY OF PONTIAC. 

one of wliom would confess the other brother, or war together 
in any common cause. Pontiac could hope to do little with 
them, even with his powerful eloquence, and might, at any 
moment, excite jealousies which would cost him his life. To 
the North were tribes ready to obey his will, but what were 
they if alone pitted against the strong foe ? He might, indeed, 
banish himself, with a proud remnant of his people, to the 
regions of Lake Superior, but, what an end to all his dreams 
of power! 

The second alternative opened for his choice was that of 
peace — to accept the terms of amnesty and reconciliation ex- 
tended by Croghan and to abide the issue of events — ^hoping 
that, in the unsettled order of affairs a disorder might arise 
propitious to his further attempts at aboriginal consolidation. 
This alternative he resolved to adopt. How must his turbu- 
lent spirit have revolted at such a step ! Yet, we can well be- 
lieve he found consolation in his perfidious heart. Duplicity, 
treachery, insincerity, were weapons kept in reserve when 
all others failed : upon their potency he relied, with a savage 
obliviousness to honor, to carry him through even the humili- 
ations of a peace. 

Croghan's mission was one full of wild adventure and dan- 
ger. Jt required not only a stout heart to penetrate the Indian 
country, but great prudence in managing the savages over 
whom the wand of peace was to be waved. These qualities 
the deputy of Sir William Johnson appears to have possessed 
in a bountiful degree. Though attacked by the Kickapoos on 
the Ohio, just below the mouth of the Wabash, and two-thirds 
of his party killed or wounded, the leader was spared and 
borne a prisoner to Yincennes, where he found a kind recep- 
tion from Canadian traders, and the chiefs friendly to the ob- 
jects of his mission. From Yincennes, though a prisoner, he 
was permitted to proceed up the Wabash to Fort Ouatanon, 
arriving there June 23d, 1765, to find the old fort tenanted by 
a motly crowd of traders and savages of both sexes. By these 
he was made welcome ; and the news, which soon spread by 
messengers, of his presence and the powers with which he was 
clothed, soon served to surround him with deputations from all 



PONTIAC BURIES THE HATCHET. 97 

tlie adjacent tribes and sub-tribes. These Indians all smoked 
and made peace, swearing eternal fealty to the English. One 
tribe of the Hlinois dispatched a messenger — a Frenchman — to 
Ouatanon with the polite request for the Indians at the post 
to burn the deputy ; but, peace was already made, and no 
Pontiac was there to perpetrate the atrocious act. 

The news of Croghan's arrival and labors soon reached St 
Ange at Fort Chartres, whose disagreeable position already 
has been adverted to. Surrounded by Pontiac's hungry and 
defiant warriors, all the winter and spring the French com- 
mander had lived in daily expectation of an outbreak. Day 
by day he had kept his weary watch over the stream which 
flowed away in its wonderful tide to the Grulf, hoping to see 
the cross of St. George bearing up to his relief; but, though 
two expeditions started from New Orleans they were aban- 
doned as impractical, and, up to the date of Croghan's arrival, 
no English force had reached Fort Chartres. St. Ange, hence, 
welcomed the agent and dispatched a messenger to hasten his 
visit to the Illinois country. Arrangements were soon made 
for the journey. No longer a prisoner he was attended by a 
la rge body of waniors and chiefs as an honorary guard and the 
Tb arch to Fort Chartres commenced. When but a few miles 
o>i the way, Croghan was surprised by encountering the for- 
nidable Ottawa Chief, who, it appeared, was en route with a 
Ivrge body of his leading men for Ouatanon, to make peace 
with the agent. All returned to the' Wabash, where a council 
at once was convened and the terms of a treaty soon arranged. 
Pontiac treated the Englishman with a dignity becoming a 
great brave. He acknowledged that he had been deceived by 
the French, but failed to concede to any white man rights to 
soil. 

This practically ended the objects of the mission to the Illi- 
nois country. Accompanied by Pontiac and a large retinue 
of his warriors, Croghan bent his way to Detroit, by way of 
Fort Miami and the Maumee river, holding conferences at nu- 
merous villages on the route. He reached Detroit August 17th, 
to find great numbers of Ottawas, Pottawatamies and Ojibwas 
ill the vicinity, all eager to enter into covenants for peace. 



98 THE CONSPIRACY OF PONTIAC. 

Their sufferings through a total cessation of the fur trade, by 
which their many wants of blankets, guns, ammunition, ket- 
tles, &c., had been supplied, their losses in battle, and the ab- 
sence of their usual supply of rum, all conspired to make the 
red-men repentant and anxious for Croghan's coming. He 
quickly convened the chief men of all the tribes in the old 
Pottawatamie council chamber. There Pontiac had lit the 
fires of conspiracy, and there it was meet that they should be 
quenched. Even the blood-thirsty wretch who had led the 
massacre at Michilmacinac was present to ask terms of recon- 
ciliation. Pontiac was a comparatively quiet spectator, taking 
but small part in the ceremonies, though lending his influence 
to a consummation of the objects of the mission. He, to all 
appearances, acted in good faith, though it is not to be con- 
ceived that his thoroughly perfidious nature was capable < )f 
acting from any other impulse than of policy. On the 28th of 
August, in reply to Croghan's formal speech of congratulati* >n 
and fraternity made on the previous day, Pontiac declared bis 
peace to be permanently made, and closed with an eloqueat 
exordium that the rum-barrel might be opened and his w?\r- 
riors be permitted to quench their thirst. 

The conferences were not finally ended until late in Septem- 
ber, when Croghan returned to Niagara to report the success 
which had attended his labors. His journal, written out with 
much care, still is preserved in the State Office at Albany. It 
was perused, at the date of his return, by Sir William John- 
son and General Gage, Commander-in-Chief, with great satis- 
faction. It was the record of the close of the great Conspiracy. 

Our narrative would properly close here, but we may be 
permitted briefly to recur to the succeeding career of Pontiaa 

Early in the summer of 1766 the Ottawa Chief, agreeable to 
promise made to Broghan, started upon a visit to Sir WilHam 
Johnson. Attended by sixty of his chosen warriors and sev- 
eral chiefs from the confederated tribes, he passed down Lake 
Erie from the Maumee river, on which stream he had located 
his people. The voyage was made in birch-bark canoes along 
the southern shore of the great Lake, over which the mighty 
fleets of the all conquering race were, ere another half century, 



PONTIAC VISITS SIE WM. JOHNSON. 99 

to sweep. Could the proud savage have had the veil lifted — 
could he have beheld the coming of the mighty host scattering 
great cities in its train, how would his barbarian spirit have 
raved in its impotence ! He really stood upon the threshhold, 
only a shadow of the past — a type of the darkness doomed to 
pass away before the white skinned civilization coming. 

Arriving at Schlosser canoes and packs were taken on 
the shoulders of the bronze braves and borne down Niagara 
river past the falls to Lake Ontario at Fort Niagara. From 
thence, after a brief tarry, the little fleet pursued its way down 
to Oswego, where Sir William Johnson awaited the Ottowa's 
coming. How he was informed of that coming we are not ad- 
vised, but he was present, with an imposing body of Iroquois, 
to receive the "Western deputation. 

The first meeting of welcome took place July 23d, 1766. ' The 
formal grand council opened on the succeeding day and was 
continued until July 31st. It was attended with the usi;al 
Indian ceremonials and forms, but proved highly interestijig 
in its matter and manner of discourse. All things were ar- 
ranged satisfactorily, and the council ended by a distribution 
of numerous gifts to the embassy. Johnson, throughout the 
entire proceedings, acted with his usual keen judgment, and 
apparently, gained over the mind of Pontiac and his followers 
influence like that which he had won over the Iroquois. 
That it was only a passing influence was demonstrated 
ere a year had fled, when the West again resounded with 
threatenings which were soon to be followed by the second 
war of the border — a prelude to the sacrifices and massacres of 
the Revolution. 

Pontiac does not appear upon the stage again except like a 
portentous shadow flitting hither and thither through the 
Western wilderness to excite the anxiety of garrisons and 
traders. Though it is not known that he actually incited th« 

* From the Minutes of Proceedings now preserved in the State Office at Albany, 
we learn that chiefs of the Ottawas, Hurons, Chippewas(Ojibwas) and Pottawata- 
mies were present. Pontiac in his reply to Johnson's address, said among other 
things : " I speak in the name of all the nations to the Westward, of whom I am 
the master." And again : " When you address me, it is the same as if you ad- 
dressed all the nations of the West." 

13 



100 THE CONSPIRACY OF PONTIAC. 

savages to a perpetuation of their rancor toward the English, 
it is certain that his influence was not exerted to fulfil the 
terms of his treaty ; every commander, agent and trader in the 
West, from Fort Pitt, Presqu' Isle, Detroit, to Michilmacinac 
and Fort Chartres, felt that his influence was bad ; he was 
everywhere, and, apparently with good reason, regarded with 
distrust. Had he been spared to the period of the War of the 
Ee volution, with what joy would his treacherous heart have 
welcomed the British Government's call of the savages to the 
field ! Well, mdeed, for the border settlements in 1777 and 
1778 that the great Conspirator was dead. 

He was murdered in 1769 by a member of one of the Illi- 
nois tribes. Accounts are, however, quite conflicting regard- 
ing the time and place of his death. Parkman gives confidence 
— properly so, we think — to the precise statements of the late 
Pierre Chouteau, of St. Louis, who, through all his after life, 
recalled the incidents distinctly. He stated that Pontiac, with 
a number of his chiefs, had visited the Illinois country — for 
what reason is not known. In April, 1769, he spent several 
days in St. Louis, then a Spanish post. There,he was so favo- 
rably received as to add to the anxiety of the English regard- 
ing his presence. He, at length, passed pver the river to Ca- 
hokia, where the Illinois Indians always were congregated in 
considerable numbers. Cahokia was an old French settlement, 
whose Creole inhabitants had so far assimilated with the red 
race as to seem like their veritable "brothers." Pontiac found 
a warm welcome at their hands. A feast followed and, in 
common with all his warriors, the Ottawa Chief became drunk. 
The moment for the English to rid themselves of their detested 
and dreaded foe seemed to have arrived. A trader named 
Wilkinson, then in the village, resolved to see the deed of 
assassination consummated, and, with a barrel of whisky bribed 
a vagabond brave of the Kaskaskia tribe to kill the Chief 
The favorable opportunity was not long wanting. Pontiac, 
loaded with liquor, reeled away into the woods, chaunting as 
he staggered along the medicine song of the race of magicians, 
to which the Chief was reputed to belong. This was the last 
ever seen of the gi-eat warrior alive. His dead body was, in a 



PONTIAC'S MURDER AVENGED, 101 

brief time discovered. Then followed a scene whicli beggars 
description. From hamlet to hamlet the intelligence flew. 
The air resounded with the wails of the Ottawa warriors. Soon 
these wails were changed to the wild war-whoop, and the war- 
riors, swinging aloft theii" tomahawks, cried aloud for vengeance. 
The Kaskaskias drew their weapons for the onslaught, appa- 
rently eager to annihilate the whole Ottawa band. But, no 
bloodshed followed. Pontiac's followers bounded off into the 
■jvoods, to bear to the tribes of the East and North news of his 
death, and to call them to the war-path. The murdered Chief 
was left weltering in his gore until the body was claimed by 
St, Ange — then commanding at St. Louis — who buiied it with, 
martial ceremony near the Spanish fort. 

Parkman observes, of the war which followed : " Could his 
shade have revisited the scene of murder his savage spirit 
would have exulted in the vengeance which overwhelmed the 
abettors of the crime. Whole tribes were rooted out to expi- 
ate it Chiefs and sachems, whose veins had thrilled with his 
eloquence — young warriors, whose aspiring hearts had caught 
the inspiration of his greatness, mustered to revenge his fate, 
and from the North and East their united bands descended on 
the villages of the Elinois. Tradition has but faintly preserv- 
ed the memory of the event ; and its only annalists, men who 
held the intestine feuds of the savage tribes in no more account 
than the quarrels of panthers or wild cats, have left but a mea- 
gre record. Yet enough remains to tell us that, over the grave 
of Pontiac, more blood was poured out in atonement than 
flowed from the hecatombs of slaughtered heroes on the corpse 
of Patroculus ; and the remnant of the Illinois who survived 
the carnage remained forever after sunk in utter insignificance." 
If such was the vengeance of savages towards their own race, 
it is not to be wondered at that their vengeance toward the 
whites was characterised by a cruelty and ferocity which 
would have shocked the barbarian hordes who swept down 
from the North to destroy Eoman civilization. It was well for 
the destiny of the American colonies that Pontiac's Conspiracy 
was powerless to roll back the tide of civilization setting in to- 
ward the boundless West. Had the great Conspirator sue- 



102 THE CON-SPIRACT OF PONTIAC. 

ceeded in preserving his ascendancy tlie wilderness and prai- 
ries' of what is now the grain garden of the world must have 
long remained a haunt for wild beasts and savages. Let 
us be rejoiced that he did not appear one century earlier. 



THEPAXTON ''RIOTS." 



Pennsylvania was the scene of intense excitement during 
the winter of 1763-64. In the settlements along the Eastern 
slopes of the Alleghanies and the upper vallies of the Susque- 
hanna, Indian barbarities that are sickening to contemplate 
had scarcely ceased when a spirit of revenge sprang into life 
which, for a brief season, threatened the total subversion of 
all order in society if not all order in government. It origi- 
nated primarily in hostility to the Indian race, and, secondari- 
ly, in the Quaker policy of the Pennsylvania Assembly. 
While it supported from public monies bodies of Christian- 
ized Indians, the Assembly, owing to its Quaker majority, re- 
fused to sustain the hardy border men in resisting incur- 
sions of the savages. The awful sufferings of the frontier set- 
tlements ; the tardy, almost heartless, co-operation of the As- 
sembly ; the protection and support given to the Moravian and 
Conestoga Indians ; the bitterness existing between the Qua- 
kers and the Presbyterians — all conspired to excite the frontier 
men to a coui-se which, though reprehensible, had strong ex- 
tenuating circumstances. 

A remnant of an ancient section of the Iroquois still remain- 
ed (in 1762) at the " Manor" of Conestoga, below Lancaster on 
the Susquehanna. A treaty made with William Penn, and 
ratified by succeeding Governors, had guaranteed to the In- 
dians their possessions in the manor ; there they had lived, 
undisturbed, for many years — decreasing in numbers as the 
red race usually does when brought into contact with civiliza- 



104 THE PAZTON RIOTS. 

tion.* At tlie date under notice the entire community com- 
prised only twenty persons — men, women and children, who 
obtained the means of sustenance through the manufacture by 
the women of baskets, brooms, bead- work, and by the rude culti- 
vation of small corn patches. The men (six in number) were 
veritable vagabonds, who, at any moment, would sell their 
squaws' honor for a dram of rum. They were considered by 
their white neighbors simply as a social nuisance, perfectly 
harmless, and not considerate enough of their own welfare to 
do any thing requiring exertion of any kind. 

The massacres along the Susquehanna above Lancaster, du- 
ring 1763, had so thoroughly exasperated the people that no 
quarter was given to any savage caught on the war-path. The 
woods were infested with the tireless warriors, who crept like 
snakes upon their prey, indiscriminately butchering men, wo- 
men and children — a few only of the females being spared to 
be borne off into captivity. All the year long a great cry of 
sorrow went up from the region, now so beautiful in its rich- 
ness, comprised in the counties of Cumberland, Dauphin, York, 
Lancaster and Berks. The people ceased to cultivate lands ; 
estates and tenements were deserted, the fugitives seeking safe- 
ty in the eastern and southern settlements ; everywhere along 
the frontier only the hardy border man tarried, to care for his 
little property or to hunt the savage. Even in villages not 
then remote from the thickly settled district tireless vigilance 

* We say " civilization" for want of a true term by which to express a painful 
fact. Contact with the whites almost uniformly carries vice to the Indian house- 
hold and community. It debauches the females and debases the males, both to a 
degree incomprehensible when we consider that the red race has a quick and pen- 
etrating intelligence, that it loves independence and, in its native state, possesses 
noble traits of honor and virtue. Palpable reasons for this vice are offered ; as, 
for instance, the Indian love for liquor — the female love of adornment — the disin- 
clination of the males to labor — the native love for a vagabond life. But, all these 
are incidental faults ; they never were displayed until the white man came with 
his " civilization", and, by all the laws of logic they are therefore chargeable to 
that civilization. In his most primitive state, when his passions are those of the 
tiger — playful when at peace but remorseless when oa the war-path — the savage 
is infinitely preferable, in the great scale of humanity, to the creature that he be- 
comes after association with the white race. 



MASSACKE OF THE CONESTOGAS. 105 

was used to prevent surprise ; every man carried his fire-arms 
to church, to the field, in his visits, and kept them by his bed- 
side at night. 

Among the places sacked and its inhabitants butchered du- 
ring the French War (1755) was Paxton — a little settlement 
on the Susquehanna, near the present site of Harrisburg, It 
was, in 1763, one of the most exposed of villages. Its people 
were relatives of those murdered in the fii-st onslaught of the 
savages, and in their bosoms burned a hatred of the red race 
to be quenched only with the annihilation of their detested 
foe. In common with most of the border hamlets it was peo- 
pled by Presbyterians of North-of-Ireland descent — a race of 
men about equally addicted to scripture, to dislike of Quakers 
and to eagerness for a "set to" with any kind of an antagonist 
They were not lacking in the material for a riot, nor did they 
lack for reasons which offered them, at the time, enough ex- 
cuse for their violence to find many sympathisers among men 
in high station. 

We have here the two ingredients of the outbreak which 
iollowed. The Paxton, men confident that the Conestoga vag- 
abonds were leagued with the hostile Indians, acting as spies 
for them and giving them shelter, resolved upon the " wiping 
out" the entire twenty — men, women and children. During 
the second week of December a Paxton scout reported that an 
Indian guilty of crimes on the frontier had been traced to Con- 
estoga, where he was entertained by the manor families. Thia 
fired the combustible materials of the " riot" Matthew Smith, 
a recognised leader among the Paxton people, called five of his 
trusty fellows to the saddle and they proceeded to the manor 
to reconnoitre. Beaching it early in the night Smith himself 
approached the cabins, and, peering into those in which fires 
were burning, discovered what he reported to be armed savag- 
es. Thus the worst suspicions of the settlement were confirm- 
ed, and it was resolved no longer to delay the oft-threatened 
extirpation. Gathering about fifty men, well armed and 
mounted, Smith led the way to the cabins, reaching them early 
on the morning of December lith. The party picketing their 
horses in the woods, approached stealthily on foot through th« 



106 THE PAXTON RIOTS. 

snow, but not so noiselessly as to give no alarm. The suscept- 
ible ear of an Indian caught the mufHed tread of feet. He issued 
from one of the cabins to reconnoitre. A rifle ball brought 
him to the ground, shot by one of the band who professed to 
recognise the savage as the one who had killed his (the border 
man's) mother. A wild shout rent the air and the borderers 
passed into the little tenements to kill every red-skin found- 
Only six were there — all the others having, as if in premoni- 
tion of their fate, scattered throughout the neighborhood during 
the previous day. These six were horribly mutilated — ^the 
white men, for the moment, becoming veritable savages. The 
cabins were then rifled of whatever of value they contained 
and the torch applied. By the light of the flames the " aveng- 
ers" made their way, through the deep snow, toward Paxton. 

An alarm soon spread. The light of the burning log houses 
lit up the sad scene and brought many neighbors to the spot 
These gathered the half consumed bodies of the dead and gave 
them decent burial. The sheriff of Lancaster, being on the 
ground at once, gathered the fourteen remaining Indians from 
the farm houses in the neighborhood and had them borne for 
protection to the Lancaster jail. Excitement over the tragedy 
ran high. The general voice then condemned the murder as 
atrocious and uncalled for, though a few, with the old hate of 
the race still rankling in their breasts, extenuated the deed of 
blood as an excusable revenge for wrongs suffered. The news 
quickly flew to Philadelphia. Governor Penn offered, by pro- 
clamation, a reward for the discovery of the murderers, and, 
for a few days, there was an earnest purpose on the part of the 
authorities to ferret out every man concerned in the crime. 

But, all this scarcely affected the bold fellows who had re- 
solved upon wiping out the Conestoga tribe — fourteen of whom 
still remained, though safely protected by the strong walls of 
the stone jail in Lancaster. A spy was dispatched to the jail, 
by the Paxton men, to ascertain if, among the Indians in the 
jail, there was one suspected of having killed a relative to a 
member of the men in arms. The spy reported favorably to 
the suspicion ; when the band determined upon a visitation to 
the jail, under the guidance of one Lazarus Stewart. Smith, 



MASSACRE OF THE CONESTOGAS. 107 

the former leader, accompanied tlie second expedition — -wliicli, 
it is stated by some authorities, was only for the seizure of the 
suspected savage, who was to be borne to Carlisle, and, if 
identified of the crime attributed to him, was there to be hung. 
If the leader entertained such a design his men certainly were 
not of his mind ; they en],isted to consummate the horrible 
work commenced at the cabins of exterminating the wretched 
outcasts. 

Having arranged all for a sudden descent on Lancaster the 
band left Paxton December 27th, 1763 — all well mounted and 
armed. In starting from the village they were confronted by 
their pastor, Kev. John Elder, whose influence though great 
could not dissuade the men from their purpose. Pushing on 
to Lancaster, at three in the afternoon the Paxton rangers rode 
rapidly into the town, turned their horses loose in a yard and, 
without a moment's delay, rushed to the jail. The door of the 
strong building offered but a moment's resistance ; soon the 
entire mob of desperate men was inside. The fourteen Indians 
were, at that moment, in the jail yard. They cowered before 
the sudden storm and read their fate at a glance. Two or 
three of the red-men seized billets of wood as if to defend them- 
selves, but there was no defense against the rifles and toma- 
hawks of fifty savage whites, intent on blood. Crowding into 
the yard they quickly completed the work of death. It was a 
revolting act : men, women and children were involved in the 
common massacre. Did any show signs of life a dozen rifles 
and tomahawks were made to do service on the helpless vic- 
tim. Not one was spared ; the spot which, a few moments be- 
fore, was their friendly shelter, became the altar of their sacri- 
fice. 

So quickly was the deed consummated that the alarm could , 
not be given in season to arrest the perpetrators : they were on 
their horses, flying out of town before the people were 
aware of what had transpired. The chief magistrate, Edward 
Shippen, and most of the leading citizens, were at church cel- 
ebrating a Christmas service, which had been deferred 
from the previous day. In the midst of the sei*vice a man 
burst open the door and shouted " murder — jail — Paxton men 
14 



■ICS THE PAXTON RIOTS. 

/—Indians ! " The audience ruslied tumultuouslj fortli and 
from the house of worship passed into the presence of death — 
death in its most horrible aspects. There lay the victims, 
scattered around through all parts of the yard, mangled shock- 
ingly, heads blown to pieces, bodies pierced, limbs lacerated — 
the work of men professing to be Christian, It was a sight 
from which all turned in horror. A decent burial was given 
the remains, outside the town limits, where the bones were 
permitted to remain until eighty years afterwards, when a rail- 
way excavation first disturbed their repose. 

This shocking butchery sent a wild thrill of horror to the 
bosoms of the Quakers in the province. Their indignation 
found vent in a wholesale denunciation of the murderers and 
their alleged friends, the Presbyterians, who, it was asserted, 
defended the two murderous expeditions by citations from 
scripture.^ This inculpation soon heightened the wrath long 
existing between the two sects, and fi-om that hour for many 
years they became as irreconcileable as two positive poles of a 
voltaic battery. Governor Penn issued a second proclamation, 
offering what was then deemed to be heavy rewards for the 
detection and arrest of the murderers ; but none were arrested, 
though no concealments of their share in the butchery were 
practiced by those who did the deed : they rather boasted of 
their act as one of proper retributive and religious justice. No 
'arrest could have been made except by a heavy force of mili- 
tary ; but no such force was available. Indeed, it is presumed 
that, feeling, as all soldiers then did, a deadly hatred of the en- 
tii-e Indian race, they would not have acted as a posse comitatus 
to hunt the hardy Paxtonians. 

There was, however, but brief respite for enforcing legal 
processes. Successful in exterminating the Cones toga vaga- 
bonds, the Paxton men were emboldened to conceive them- 
selves constituted ministers of vengeance, and, in the plenitude 
of their assurance, they resolved to finish the Moravian Indians 
— thus to save the peaceful missionaries all trouble of civilizing 
the barbarians. To this precious project of wholesale butch- 

' Deuteronomy vii. 2, was particularly cited by the rioters themselves as a pious 
defense of their act. 



THE MORAVIAN INDIANS MENACED. 109 

cry it is true that a majority of border men lent a -willing ear, 
moved by their irreconcileable bate of the Indian, their disgust 
of the non-combatant Quakers, and their indignation toward a 
General Assembly which appropriated public money to sup- 
port missions, yet offered a beggarly assistance to those strug- 
gling against the horrors of savage visitation on the fi'ontier.* 
In the Assembly were only ten representatives from the five 
counties of Lancaster, York, Cumberland, Berks and North- 
ampton, while the counties of Philadelphia, Chester and Bucks 
had twenty-six members — the majority of whom were Quakers. 
As the counties first named were settled chiefly by Irish and 
Scotch Presbyterians, their minority in the Chamber placed 
them and their prosperity quite at the mercy of the drab coat- 
ed, broad brimmed majority. In consequence, the wrath of 
the frontier men waxed strong in proportion to the wrong con- 
ceived to have been done by the Quakers, 

The Moravian Indians, two months prior to the Conestoga 
affair, had been so threatened by the border men that their mis- 
sionaries had been impelled to consolidate their three commu 
nities and to remove to a place of safety. Nazareth was first 
chosen ; but, from thence, owing to the continual public ex- 
citement, the General Assembly ordered their removal to some 
spot near Philadelphia where, being entirely disarmed, it would 
be out of their power to do harm. Gathered for their exile 
they numbered about one hundred and forty, of all ages and 
conditions. Everywhere along the route to Philadelphia they 
were received with jeers and threats by all except the Quakers, 
who stood firm as friends to the forlorn band. Peaching the 
capital excitement ran so high that their destruction seemed 
inevitable. Quarters had been assigned them in the barracks, 

• In the Memorial afterwards addressed to the Governor and General Assembly, 
by Matthew Smith and James Gibson, the grievances of the frontier men were set 
forth at some length. Nine specifications were offered of wrongs and inflictions 
nnder which they suffered. The points taken appear to have been well grounded 
in fact. The Memorial discloses the purpose of the " rioters" to have been of a 
somewhat revolutionary character. The Moravian Indians were to be disposed of, 
but that was only a redress of one of nine disabilities alleged to exist — all of which 
the *' Paxton boys" were bound to " wipe out." Their movement, therefore, on 
the then capital of Pennsylvania was both insurrectionary and revolutionary. 



110 THE PAXTON RIOTS. 

bj order of tlie Governor ; but the soldiers of tbe station posi- 
tively refused to receive their detested guests. All day long 
the Indians stood out on the square in front of the barracks ; 
and no command of Governor or officer could open the doors 
of the buildings. Only the presence of a large number of 
Quakers, many of them persons of influence, prevented the 
mob from violence toward the thoroughly frightened exiles. 

Late in the afternoon it was arranged to send the Indians 
down to Province island, where temporary protection could be 
offered them ; and thither they proceeded, followed by the in- 
furiated mob, but protected by a strong body of Quakers. 
Once quartered on the island they remained in comparative 
security, cared for by the benevolent. It was thought all dan- 
ger and suffering were past But, the awful tragedy at Lan- 
caster jail stirred the fires anew. The alarm spread to Phila- 
delphia and the terrible Paxton men were reported to be en 
route for Province Island, resolved upon the murder of every 
red-skin there. A number of boats were sent down to the 
island and every Indian was embarked, to be borne further 
down the river. That alarm was groundless, and the tremb- 
ling creatures were restored to their quarters only to be soon 
turned out again. This time they were, agreeable to orders 
of the Assemblj^, dispatched to New York, there to be placed 
in charge of Sir William Johnson — an order which the Assem- 
bly had no right to make without the consent of the Governor 
of New York and of the Indian Agent, There was danger, 
however, in the red people remaining ; any day might see the 
border madmen down upon the city — a visitation dreaded as 
Kome must have dreaded the coming of the Goths. The ter- 
ror which prevailed in the city was painful to behold, yet it 
had, behind all, a background of humor and satire. If the city 
was menaced why did not the people arm and boldly confront 
the violators of law and order ? Quaker non-combativeness 
seemed nothing but abject pusillanimity ; and the act of send- 
ing off the unoffending Moravian converts to another province, 
capped the climax of their absurd timidity. The poor victims, 
starting at midnight, January 4:th, 1764, were marched over 
New Jersey, everywhere to receive nothing but insults at the 



RIOTERS MARCH UPON PHILADELPHIA. IH 

Lands of the people — so general was tlie tate of the red race. 
Arriving at Amboy, after a weary tramp by way of Trenton, 
the agents of Pennsylvania were astonished to receive from 
Governor Golden, of New York, a message forbidding the In- 
dians to step foot on his tenitory. Other orders from General 
Gage and the New York city aiithorities, arrested all further 
progress ; once more the exiles were without a resting place. 
A messenger soon came from Governor Franklin, of New Jer- 
sey, ordering the Indians from his territory. Under an escort 
of one hundi-ed and seventy troops, dispatched by General 
Gage to the assistance of Governor Penn against the rioters, 
the men, women and children returned to Philadelphia. Their 
ill usage and a sense of danger from the border men had work- 
ed a change in the soldiers' hearts toward the helpless band, 
and they were given quarters in the city barracks. 

The moment was one of great excitement, for the Paxton 
men were, in truth, advancing upon the city. Seeing that 
there was no other way to avert the danger than boldly to 
confront it — to match rifle with rifle and swofd with tomahawk, 
the Quakers made a virtue of necessity and became as combat- 
ant as the most devoted martinet could have desired. The 
Assembly voted arms and supplies ; it proclaimed the English 
riot act and no longer had any qualms of conscience about the 
proper use of powder and ball. Benjamin Franklin moved 
his fellow -citizens, the animating genius of the crisis. He then 
betrayed that sagacity, prudence, indomitable will and true 
courage which afterwards made him one of the safest guides 
through the stormy period of the Eevolution. 

The Paxton men, under command of Matthew Smith, James 
Gibson and others, after gathering from their several rendez- 
vous, started for Philadelphia about the first of February, in- 
creasing in numbers as they progressed, until nearly or quite 
one thousand men composed the motly mob. Their advance 
appeared at Germantown February 4th, and the alarm was at 
once given in the city. The bells rang and citizens flocked to 
the barracks, determined to defend the Indians to the last 
The troops sent by Gage, and a small body of Highlanders, 
were under arms ready for duty. A spirit of resistance pre- 



112 THE PAXTON RIOTS. 

vailed wliich must have drenclied tlie streets in blood, liad the 
" regulators" then attempted a descent upon the barracks. But 
no invasion of the city limits followed. All night long, in a 
drenching rain, the citizens stood under arms, alert for an at- 
tack expected at any moment. The following day (Sunday) a 
banicade was thrown across the square before the barracks, 
upon which were mounted a number of cannon, so disposed 
as to sweep all approaches. The city fairly swarmed with 
men in arms — conspicuous among whom were drab coats and 
broad brimmed hats. Spies from the border men circulated 
freely throughout the place, to report the belligerent state of 
affairs to their somewhat surprised brother cut-throats ; they 
had not expected such a reception at the hands of the Quakera 
Nothing occurred during the Sabbath to cause farther alarm- 
Still preferring the use of the tongue to the sword, the citizens 
dispatched a squad of clergymen to the Paxtonians, hoping to 
prove that it was not their duty to butcher the heathen, ac- 
cording to command in Deuteronomy. This mission the 
ministers do not appear to have executed with commendable 
zeal, since Matthew Smith, that night, seized Swedes Ford, over 
the Schuylkill, preparatory to a march upon the city. But no 
advance was made. Eeady as the Paxton men were to cut the 
throats of one hundred and forty bronze men, women and 
children, they were not prepared to face the music of twelve 
cannon and two thousand muskets. So they remained quietly 
at Germantown, and, during Monday, were visited by a num- 
ber of the more adventurous citizens. An unexpected change 
had come over the spirit of the border men's dreams. Though 
"clad in blanket coats and moccasins," and "armed with rifles 
and tomahawks and some with pistols stuck in their belts," 
they were as non-combative as disciples of George Fox. No 
violence was offered, and numbers of those who had volun- 
teered to bring the Quakers to terms, returned home to consid- 
er matters. This peaceable attitude induced the authorities to 
a trial of negotiation, much against the desires of the regulars 
and of the citizens in arms, who seemed to prefer the bayonet 
for an arbiter in suppressing such an insurrection. The voice 
of the elders prevailed, and Franklin, with three other eminent 



PRESBYTERIAN VS. QUAKER. 113 

citizens, souglit the Paxton camp. His negotiations ended 
satisfactorily, assurances having been given of a redress of 
grievances, as well as safety being guaranteed to those of the 
Paxton men who might enter the city as deputies. Matthew 
Smith and John Gibson were chosen by their men to repre- 
sent their cause. They at once di'ew up two papers, a Eemon- 
strance and a Declaration of Grievances— the latter of which 
is referred to in foot note page 109 — which the Governor was 
to lay before the Assembly. Upon this settlement of the af- 
fair the citizen-soldiers were dismissed and quiet was restored. 
On the succeeding day thirty of the frontier men entered the 
city much to the alarm of its people, who again swarmed into 
the streets with arms in their hands : but the thirty were on a 
peaceful mission of observation and to boast of their exploits 
in having participated in the Conestoga and Lancaster murders. 
The act was one of singular bravado considering the fact that 
rewards were then out for their arrest ; but, none of all that 
city of brave men were presumptuous enough to hiy hands on 
the desperate fellows. They visited the barracks to identify 
Indians whom they swore they had seen in arms against the 
settlers and who had fought against Colonel Bouquet ; but 
none were recognised. The Paxton men soon withdrew ; Ger- 
mantown was relieved of their thieving and riotous presence ; 
only Smith and Gibson remained in Philadelphia to care for 
the interests of their constituents before the Assembly. 

Thus ended the " Paxton Eiots" ; but there followed a war 
of words which, for a season, so absorbed all classes as to ren- 
der them oblivious to the original cause of the disturbance. 
Quaker was pitted against Presbyterian. Argument and ap- 
peal soon gave place to threat and invective. Pamphlets, sat- 
ires, poems, letters, addresses, communications, flew around as 
thickly as snow flakes. Everybody seemed to be drawn into 
the vortex of passion. Friends became enemies — enemies, 
friends. The "subject" invaded the precincts of the pulpit, 
the bar, the school room, the family circle and the counting 
house. Shoemakers hammered their opponents instead of 
hammering sole-leather ; tailors thrust rhetorical daggers into 
Presbyterian or Quaker, instead of stitching away eight honest 



114 THE PAXTON RIOTS. 

hours at jean garments ; painters stopped daubing houses to 
daub their enemies' character and prospects ; lawyers forgot 
their briefs in lengthy tirade, against some equally wordy an- 
tagonist. Preachers " pitched into" one another like experts 
from a Donnybrook fair. It was a veritable reign of reason 
run mad ; and stands on the page of history as an illustration 
of the folly and the weakness of human nature. 

Nothing came of the labors of Smith and Gibson to secure 
more equality in representation, to obtain guarantees of pro- 
tection for the borders, to compel a change of policy toward 
friendly Indians, and to secure immunity from trial for those 
engaged in the Conestoga massacre. The warlike attitude of 
affairs, by which even the interior was threatened with the 
tomahawk of blood-thu'sty demons compelled the Assem- 
bly to vote troops and supplies ; but no concessions were made 
to the Paxton men, and they remained under the ban of the 
law through their lives. No arrests, singularly enough, were 
made, save that of Lazarus Stewart, eight years after the Lan- 
caster jail tragedy, when he was placed in confinement in the 
same building where the unhappy Indians had sought safety. 
To insure conviction the Quakers had arranged to transfer his 
trial to Philadelphia, This attempt to force him from Lancas- 
ter — where Stewart, it would appear, was quite willing to be 
tried — impelled him to break jail and escape. At Paxton he 
rallied a band of resolute fellows who set the officers of the law 
at defiance. He issued an address of justification to the peo- 
ple, setting forth his services and the justice of his acts. With 
his followers he retired to Wyoming, in whose tragic history 
his name and those of his brave rangers mingle in honorable 
connection. The Moravian Indians remained in Philadelphia 
during the Indian war, supported by appropriations from the 
public treasury and by contributions. In the year 1765 they 
were removed to the Susquehanna, not far from their old set- 
tlements, and there founded a very prosperous colony. 



THE CONSPIRACY OF BENEDICT AMOLD. 



" Forever be his name accursed of men, and his crime be 
the associate of his memory ! " was the malediction which fol- 
lowed the traitor after the exposure of his stupendous villany. 

The story of Arnold's treason is, to American readers, fii- 
miliar as a household word ; yet, like the narrative of Guy 
Fawkes' attempt to blow up the English Parliament, it has a 
perennial interest, not only because of its momentous nature 
as a conspiracy against the cause of the Colonies, but also from 
the drama which followed involving the fate of Andre. We 
consider it, in tliis volume, simply in the light of a conspiracy, 
leaving to historians and to romance that detail of collateral 
and incidental events which serve more as embellishments to, 
than as adjuncts of, the attempted betrayal of "West Point. 

Arnold, throughout the Revolutionary War, up to 1780, 
had acted both an honorable and a dishonorable part. His 
character was turbulent ; his temper quick ; his pride imperi- 
ous ; his principles bad ; his integrity doubted. He fought 
well but acted ill ; he was courageous to an astonishing degree 
but unreliable, jealous, quarrelsome and captious. He fought 
for glory from no higher motive than the love of adulation and 
power ; he was not sound at heart. To such a nature, thwart- 
ed in its hopes of advancement, or distempered by wrongs real 
and imaginary, treason was not a crime — it was simply an in- 
strument of revenge. It needed but the pretext for him to 
commit and excuse the commission of a hideous act ; and we 
much doubt if, in the whole course of his after life, the traitor 
ever felt any compunctions of conscience for the course he had 
15 



116 THE CONSPIRACY OF ARNOLD. 

pm-suecl toward liis coimtiy. Sucli men exist in all commu- 
nities ; they need only favoring circumstances to strip them of 
their disguise and to show them as they are — purely selfish 
and unprincipled. It is not strange that Arnold should have 
appeared on the stage at the proper time and place to give his 
name to eternal infamy ; it is, rather, strange that he should 
stand quite alone — that, out of that great contest for human 
liberty, so few should have proved recreant to trust and 
corruptible. Many were disloyal among the people, and not a 
few engaged in the contest were lukewarm in the cause ; ■ but, 
to Arnold alone attaches the dishonor of an American officer 
of high command endeavoring to sell his birthright and to be- 
tray his country.' "Washington said : " Arnold's conduct is so 
villainously perfidious that there are no terms that can describe 
the baseness of his heart." He also said: " He wants feeling. 
From some traits of his character which have lately come to 
my knowledge, he seems to have been so hackneyed in villai- 
ny, and so lost to all sense of honor and shame, that, while his 
faculties will enable him to continue his sordid pursuit, there 
will be no time for remorse." A severity of judgment which 
time has not failed to confirm. Sabine, in his American Loy- 
alist says : " I am inclined to believe that Arnold was a finish- 
ed scoundrel from early manhood to his grave. Nor do I be- 
lieve he had any real, true-hearted attachment to the Whig 
cause. He fought as a mere adventurer, and took sides from 
a calculation of personal gain and chances of plunder and ad- 

1 The case of Major-General Charles Lee is, by many writers, assumed to be 
somewhat analagous to that of Arnold ; but, we are not prepared to impute to him 
the crimes charged to his memory. His devotion to the American cause was, like 
that of many other oflScers and statesmen high in position, governed much by his 
ambition. He conceived the daring design of superceding Washington, for whom 
he entertained no regard, and whose military abilities he conceived to be overesti- 
mated. He caballed against him, and fought badly at Monmouth in order to pro- 
cure defeat that Washington might be the sufferer. For this conduct he was 
court martialed and driven into exile in Virginia; but, it is not yet prove?i that he 
deliberately plotted to betray the army or to sell his adopted country — for he was 
an Englishman by birth, education and association, having arrived in America only 
two years previous to the events of 1775. His crime was that of all the faction 
who, under the leadership of Conway, endeavored to ruin Washington. 



AENOLD AS MILITARY GOVERNOR. 117 

vancement" This was written witli all tlie weight of testimo- 
ny which sixty years had produced. 

At the second memorable battle of Saratoga, October 7th, 
1777, Arnold's leg was broken, and he was incapacitated for 
service for several months. He joined Washington at Valley 
Forge in May, 1778, and was present at the entrance of the 
Continental army into Philadelphia, June 17th, 1778. Wash- 
ington placed Arnold in command as military Governor — a 
remarkable trust when we consider Washington's prudence 
and sagacity and Arnold's well known character for rashness, 
insubordination, cruelty and dissoluteness. Of all places 
Philadelphia then required a wise, discreet, humane govern- 
ment, and of all men Arnold was the worst agent who could 
have been chosen. It is true Arnold was to act under specific 
instructions, enforcing the executive resolves of Congress, re- 
specting the civil rights of the State and the municipality, and 
executing the wishes of Washington ; but, what were orders 
and wishes to him ? Three days after he took command he 
entered into a secret copartnership for the purchase and sale 
of goods, by which he at once controlled trade, and, obtaining 
extraordinary prices, soon realized a large revenue out of the 
necessities of the peo|)le. He set the municipal and State au- 
thorities at defiance, espousing, in a local quarrel, the cause of 
those notoriously disloyal — an alliance designed to further his 
schemes of rapacity. He, ere long, wooed and won the daugh- 
ter of a wealthy loyalist, Edward Shippen — she a beauty of 
eighteen, he a widower of forty. Margaret Shippen was gay, 
witty, accomplished, a fashionable flirt; her suitor was low- 
born, rude, vicious in his propensities : by what means or in- 
fluences the engagement was effected we are only left to con- 
jecture. The intrigue and duplicity which afterward came near 
to success in betraying his post certainly were equal to the 
task of catching a belle. His style of living was truly magni- 
ficent for those days : his establishment was almost royal in its 
appointments. It was necessary to marry wealth to sustain 
enormous expenditures which even his speculations could not 
support. But, long before he could call Margaret his bride and 
iustal her as mistress of the elegant old Penn mansion, its 



118 THE CONSPIRACY OF ARNOLD. 

doors were besieged by importunate creditors. The choice of 
General Joseph Eeed to the Presidency of the Executive Couf- 
cil of Pennsylvania, brought matters to a crisis. He was not 
disposed to see the course and acts of the military Governor 
of Philadelphia covered up by Arnold's fame, and by the pow- 
erful faction which stood forth in the Governor's support. 

We need not here narrate in detail the investigations which 
followed : results will suffice for our purposes. Arnold was 
finally, after great delays, convicted, before a military tribunal, 
on two comparatively minor specifications and sentenced to be 
reprimanded by the Commander-in-Chief — a sentence confirm- 
ed by Congress February 12th, 1780, and soon executed by 
Washington, with remarkable good taste and kindliness. The 
charges first preferred by Eeed were of a character to over- 
whelm Arnold with disgrace, but they were rejected by Con- 
gress, in the report of a special conmiittee, March, 1780. A 
very thorough examination had been given the matter, and an 
acquittal at the hands of the committee would seem to argue 
that, whatever may have been his sins, they were not such as 
to deprive him of the confidence of Congress or of Washington. 
Five days after this acquittal he was mamed to Miss Shippen 
— having first resigned the military Governorship. But the 
report was not called up for discussion, and the whole matter, 
without further consideration, was referred anew to a joint 
committee of the Assembly and Council of Pennsylvania and 
of Congress. The report of this committee was soon ready. 
It was considered at length, eliciting much warmth of discus- 
sion and was finally disposed of by resolving that Washington 
should convene a court martial for the military trial of such 
charges as were of a nature to be cognizable by such a court.' 

* Hamilton, in his " History of the Republic," thus construes this matter: " In 
the exercise of an invidious duty thus confided to him, Arnold incurred great dis- 
pleasure. The Government of the State interposed. Charges were made of an 
abuse of his powers, and civil prosecutions were threatened. A sharp controversy 
ensued and an appeal was preferred to Congress. The result was a vindication of 
Arnold from criminal conduct. Upon a statement that the full testimony had not 
been produced, Congress, in concert with the authorities of Pennsylvania, decided 
to submit to a court martial such charges as were cognizable by a military tribu- 
nal. This procedure Arnold charged to be the act of Reed, the President of the 
Stat«, and was supposed to have produced his ultimate criminality." 



Arnold's appeal for aid. 119 

This court the Commander-in-Cliief appointed to meet May 
1st, but, owing to various causes, it could not convene until 
the beginning of 1780, when it resulted as above stated, in a 
verdict of reprimand. 

Having resigned his command in Philadelphia, Arnold was 
without employ, but his restless spirit had not been in repose. 
It was in the fall of 1779 that he conceived the design of pass- 
ing over to the enemy. By means of a disloyal preacher in 
Philadelphia, named Odell, he found means of communicating 
with Sir Henry Clinton, then holding New York. Clinton 
turned the matter over to John Andre, his Adjutant General, 
who at once set himself about discovering who the volunteer 
correspondent was. He was not long in identifjdng his man. 
During the winter several letters passed, but none of a nature 
looking to definite results. Commercial terms were used as a 
disguise. Arnold was "Gustavus," and Andre "John Ander- 
son." After the reprimand the leaven of treason worked more 
rapidly in Arnold's heart. His indignation at the usage meted 
out by Congress and by the Pennsylvania authorities, his ex- 
ceedingly straitened circumstances, his inability to obtain from 
Congress an allowance of his claims for expenses incurred, all 
contributed to turn his thoughts more directly to the British 
for aid and honors. Having married Miss Shippen, through 
her he could communicate with Andre without suspicion, since 
she was an old friend and confidant of the gay adjutant. But, 
he still proceeded with excessive caution. The commercial 
parlance used offered a perfect cloak from detection. " Invoic- 
es," "adventures," "sums needed," "disbursement," "debt 
and credit," were convenient terms to cover the contemplated 
sale of a soul to the devil and of body to Sir Henry Clinton. 

Goaded by his wants Arnold, in his extremity, appealed for 
aid to M. de Luzerne, French Minister to the Eevolutionary 
Government. It was, evidently, his last bid for fiivor and 
help. With strong words he pictured to the Minister the hard- 
ships of his case, the wrongs he had suffered by persecutions 
and slights, the injustice of keeping back payment of his claims, 
the damage sustained by the sacrifices he had made for his 
country ; he adverted to the necessity he would be under of 



120 THE CONSPIEACY OF AENOLD 

abandoning the service, unless he conid then obtain a loan 
sufficient to clear him from the burden of his debts. This loan 
he represented it must be for the interest of the French Gov- 
ernment to extend, thus securing to the cause of France and 
the American Colonies his continued services. This bold bid 
for a purchase of his loyalty to his country the Frenchman re- 
jected as incompatible with personal honor or public prosperi- 
ty. He said : 

" Wben the envoy of a foreign power gives, or, if you please, lends 
money, it is ordinarily to corrupt those who receive it, and to make them 
the a-eatures of the sovereign whom he serves. Or, rather, he corrupts 
without persuading; he buys yet does not secure. But, the league en- 
tered into between the King and the United States is the work of justice 
and of the wisest jjolicy. It has for its basis a reciprocal interest and 
good will. In the mission with which I am charged, my true glory 
consists in fulfilling it without intrigue or cabal ; without resorting to 
any secret practices and by the force alone of the conditions of the alli- 
ance." 

It is assumed by some writers who have sought to relieve 
Arnold's name from some of its load of obloquy, that he, in 
good faith, sought this aid in order to save him from the ne- 
cessity of accepting British gold ; but, all the evidence afford- 
ed by his subsequent career goes to prove that, had he obtain- 
ed it, the " arrangement" with Andr6 would have been con- 
summated. For several months the coiTespondence regarding 
his " commercial venture" had been going on, and Arnold had 
fully committed himself to treason. His desire to obtain the 
money was to enable him to pay off his debts, and, by a good 
use of his gold and his influence, to secure such a command as 
would render his defection, at the proper moment, most ca- 
lamitous to the American cause and most worthy of a rich 
reward from the British Government. But he failed, and was 
left for a season to the importunities of creditors and the cold 
consideration generally awarded to all claimants by Congress- 
men and public officials. 

His plans matured rapidly. Washington having been in- 
vested with dictatorial powers, with an advisory council of 
three, and news of French aid soon to arrive having been re- 
ceived, active operations promised for the summer. This 



HE SOLICITS HIS PRIZE. 121 

called tlie various commanders to duty. Arnold wrote to 
General Schuyler, one of the three advisers who was about to 
join Washington, that he desired to return to the service but 
would be precluded from active duty owing to his wounds 
which, he said, were yet jjainful. He intimated the wish to be 
assigned to West Point, clearly foreseeing that, in event of a 
combined French and American attack upon ISTew York, West 
Point would prove the key to the campaign: its betrayal 
would quite destroy the Patriot programme for the summer if 
not entirely ruin the American cause. It was the prize to be 
sought for, and, with the cool calculation of an adept in vil- 
lainy, Arnold laid his plans to gain possession of the post. 

Schuyler replied (June 2d) to Arnold's note, after having 
conferred with Washington, saying in substance that the Com- 
mander-in-Chief regarded the application for service with much 
pleasure and would give it proper consideration in his arrange- 
ments for the campaign. This reply did not guarantee West 
Point ; hence Arnold set influences to work to have that as- 
signment made. His partizans in and out of Congress were 
numerous and powerful, but it would not do for the Conspira- 
tor to press his point too urgently — it might excite opposition 
in others quite anxious for the important command. Eobert 
R Livingston wrote for the post for Arnold, urging his wounds 
and his fitness for such a service as the strong points to be 
considered. Nothing was done, however. Washington never 
yielded to any suggestion except u|)on its merits ; and the ap- 
plication remained unanswered until the campaign was fairly 
inaugurated in July. 

Washington having moved his little army of four thousand 
men from Morristown, New Jersey, up to the Hu.dson, had 
concerted an attack on New York — the French fleet under the 
Chevalier de Ternay and the French army under Count de 
Eocbanibeau co-operating. The arrival of Admiral Gravies in 
New York harbor, July 13th, with six superb ships of the line, 
gave Sir Henry Clinton such reenforcements as rendered the 
proposed combined operations impracticable, and the French 
and American commanders resolved to await reenforcements 
then on the way before moving on the city. Of all this Clin 



122 THE CONSPIRACY OF ARNOLD. 

ton was fully informed — by what means is not known. He 
therefore planned a counter- expedition against the French, 
then at Newport, Khode Island. His plan was to march 
six thousand men to Throg's Neck, on the Sound, from 
whence, transports having been provided by Admiral Arbuth 
not, the descent was to be made on Newport, Arbuthnot's fleet 
co-operating. Of this move Washington soon obtained infor- 
mation, when he at once threw his now increased force over 
tke Hudson at Peekskill, preparatory to moving down by 
way of King's Bridge. In the midst of these stirring prepara- 
tions Arnold appeared. He addressed Washington to know 
what place had been assigned to him. The Commander-in- 
Chief replied that he had resolved to place him in command 
of the left wing.' Arnold was silent, and, by his acts, express- 
ed chagrin. All who witnessed the scene were surprised at his 
evident dissatisfaction — it being supposed that such a field of 
duty would have best pleased his daring and restless spirit. 
Further conference at headquarters resulted in Arnold's choice 
to the command of West Point "and its dependencies." What 
mfluences were brought to bear by the Conspirator to obtain 
the post we are not informed. Eobert Livingston, as we have 
remarked, had urged Arnold for the place ; Hamilton, in his 
"History of the Eepublic," states that Schuyler "concurred"; 
while we can well understand that the leg wounded at Sarato- 
ga was a most powerful intercessor. The command assigned 
included West Point and the posts from Fishkill to King's 
Ferry, together with the forces — infantry and cavalry — then 
holding the east side of the Hudson river. Washington's ad- 
vance upon New York was frustrated by Sir Henry Clinton's 
abandonment of his expedition against Newport after his march 
to Throg's Neck ; and the bulk of the American army was 
withdrawn, by Dobbs' Ferry, to the west of the Hudson river, 
there to await any movements of the British, or the concert of 
operations with their allies which Washington strove, at once, 

' Hamilton, ia his " History of the Republic," gives the impression (vol. ii. page 
62) that Arnold was assigned to the left wing command soon after his reprimand. 
He received no intimations from Washington until the occasion above stated. See 
Irving's Washington, vol. iv. page 81. 



ARNOLD IN COMMAND AT WEST POINT. 123 

to effect. Arnold's force therefore consisted of tlie men man 
ning the forts and redoubts surmounting the heiglits and a 
body of about six hundred infantry and two hundred cavalry 
posted on the eastern side of the river on outpost, scout and 
skirmish duty. 

The fortifications of West Point comprised, at that time, a 
fort on the north-east face of the plateau, while west of it and 
surmounting the heights beyond was Fort Putnam — a very 
powerful and well conceived redoubt. Both of these works, 
however, were very illy equipped and ordered — so rnuch so, 
that, in a report made by an engineer, ten days after Arnold 
took possession, it was said : " the whole appears, at present, 
under the care of ungovernable and undisciplined militia, like 
a wild Tartar's camp, instead of that shining fortification all 
America thinks not only an insurmountable barrier against 
the incursion of the enemy, but likewise an easy defense in 
case of an unforeseen disaster to its army." This picture must 
have been a sad one for Washington to contemplate, and 
doubtless offers one reason for his placing Arnold there : he 
hoped that that officer's well known character for sternness 
would at least reduce all to order and efftciency. In the cam- 
paign then pending it was all important that West Point 
should be ready for stern duty, for it would, in. event of any 
reverse to the American arms, have been instantly assailed by 
the British Commander-in-Chief It was the barrier against 
British communication with Canada, while it kept open the 
direct route of passage for the Americans from tha New Eng- 
land States to the South. If, therefore, it were lost, a terrible 
(juf blow wo^ld be given to the Patriot cause — then at its lowest 
point of discouragement. That Arnold chose it and that par- 
ticular moment for the consummation of his scheme, proves 
him to have sought the entire ruin of his country and its sub- 
jugation to the foreign yoke. 

The Conspirator took possession of the command by orders 
dated August 3d, 1780. His instructions were to hasten the 
completion of the works, to place them in a state of efficiency, 
and to use every measure of precaution to prevent surprise or 
a knowledge of his disposition and force. Washington's head- 
16 



124 THE CONSPIRACY OF ARNOLD. 

quarters were at Tappan, on the Jersey side of the river. 
All that Arnold did was done under the eye of his chief. 
He, therefoi-e, had to proceed with extreme caution ; the saga- 
cious instincts of the Commander-in-Chief were never asleep. 
Arnold proceeded to the eastern bank of the river, taking up 
headquarters at Eobinson's House — a fine mansion located on 
a rich plateau nearly opposite West Point, It was the confis- 
cated property of Colonel Beverly Robinson, then in Clinton's 
service, and a coadjutor of Andrd in forwarding the game of 
treason. 

Washington, eager to fall upon New York, held much cor- 
respondence with the French, who still remained inactive at 
Newport. Nothing definite was determined upon during Au- 
gust — the French being disconcerted by the non-arrival of the 
second division of their army of co-operation, which the British, 
with admirable zeal, had blockaded in the port of Brest, 
France, thus preventing its departure. Rochambeau also was 
disappointed by the non-arrival of Count de Guichen, with his 
West India squadron^ — a reenforcement necessary as a coun- 
terpoise to Arbuthnot's fleet, then sustaining Clinton. The 
Patriot Commander-in-Chief, as his published papers show, 
was exceedingly anxious in regard to the loss of time, yet he 
could do literally nothing without French aid. His little host 
of about five thousand tried men, sustained by nearly as many 
new levies, was no match for the British army and navy. Still, 
he kept unwearied watch over the country around New York, 
alert to catch any opportunity for a stroke at his adversary. 
Lucifer was at his side, walking with him unseen to thwart 
his great purposes of serving and saving his country. The 
Devil assumed the disguise of Benedict Arnold. That creature 
of darkness, learning all things regarding Washington's de- 
signs, apprised Clinton of every matter of importance. His 
correspondence with Andre, during August and September, 
was unremitted. Once fully in possession of his post he began 
preparations for its betrayal by first regulating the j>nce which 
was to be paid in hand for his stupendous crime. Andre and 
Clinton do not, to our apprehension, stand out in the guise of 
heroes in this transaction : both were principals in the crime, 



THE CONFERENCE AT HARTFORD. 125 

bj all tlie laws of honor and tlie usage of courts : they did not 
aid and abet the act, but became co-equals and instigators. 
Andre, had he been a man of honor, would have left to baser 
men that bargaining for a human solil. His whole procedure, 
in spite of the sympathy so freely bestowed upon his memory, 
was that of a,particeps criminis, and as such he deserves the 
execrations of those who scorn treason and despise treachery. 
As in the "War for the Union, those in rebellion deemed it 
honorable to break oaths of allegiance and strictly proper to ^y /^ 
practice every species of dissim.ulation and treachery toward ^ ^^^ 
their enemy,- so Andre and his employer assumed a new law ^..^)4^ *" 
of moral obligation to cover their wretched practices. But, ^^*/ 

neither men nor angels can stay the inexorable judgments of / 

time : they ever have covered, and ever will cover, dishonor 
with dishonor, perfidy with perfidy. The poet says : " let the 
dead Past bury its dead" ; History says : let the living Past 
christen its dead. 

September 18th-20th, Washington repaired to Hartford, 
Conn., accompanied by Lafayette, General Knox, Hamilton, 
McHenry and several others. The army was left in command 
of General Greene. The Commander-in-Chief crossed the river 
at Verplanck's Point in Arnold's barge — Arnold being with 
him and riding as far as Peekskill in his company, doubtless 
to learn everything possible regarding the movements which 
it was Washington's special mission to Hartford to concert 
It will be seen by Hamilton's account, which we quote, that, 
m crossing the river, Arnold sought to account for the presence 
of the British sloop of-war Yulture^ which then lay off Teller's 
Point, just below Haverstraw. That vessel was then co-ope- 
rating in the game of treason. Seven days previously (Sept 
11th) an interview between Andre and Arnold had been ar- 
ranged to be had at Dobbs' Ferrj^, which was then on " neutral 
ground", where, if Andre were surprised he could not be treat- 
ed as a spy, not being within the American lines. Arnold 
had arranged to have the British agent introduced to the Eob- 
insou House as the bearer of intelligence, \irider the feigned 
name of John Anderson, but Andre, well £>w i-re of the despe- 
rate nature of his intrigue, refused to eu^ei the lines. The 



126 THE CONSPIRACY OF ARNOLD. 

interview therefore was arranged for at Dobbs' Ferry. Andre 
and Colonel Kobinson were on hand, at the appointed time, 
but Arnold's barge in coming down the river, not being cov- 
ered by a flag, was chased by the British guard-boats, and the 
Conspirator was compelled to pull back, in some haste, to the 
protection of a battery on the west side of the river. The 
Vulture therefore was sent up stream to cover the proposed in- 
terview. How it was effected the reader will see. 

Washington having proceeded to Hartford, a conference was 
there held, Sept. 22d, with Count Eochambeau and Admiral 
Ternay, to make arrangements for operations against New York, 
in event of de Guichen's arrival with his West India squadron, 
which had been reported as on its way to New England. But, 
news coming that the squadron had actually sailed for France, 
the French commander refused to enter into arrangements for 
the fall campaign ; and Washington returned at once to the 
Hudson, two days sooner than was expected by Arnold — two 
Providential days. The return, however, was not direct to 
Peekskill, but to the river above, at Fishkill, with the design 
of inspecting fortifications then constructing or completed 
along the river above West Point. The party was detained 
on the night of Sept. 23d at Fishkill, but started off before 
daylight on the morning of the 24th, designing to breakfast 
with Arnold at the Robinson House. A courier, with the 
baggage, had proceeded in advance to Arnold's headquarters 
to apprise him of the General's coming with his suite, for 
breakfast. Arnold, thunderstruck at this unexpected advent 
of his chief, knew not what an hour would bring forth. Two 
days more and he would have surrendered his garrisons to a 
detachment ef the British army ! 

Most unfortunately, Washington did not proceed direct to 
the breakfast table, but turned aside, when within one mile of 
the Robinson House, to go down to the river and inspect the 
works at that point. Lafayette jocosely reminded him that 
Mrs. Arnold probably was in waiting for them, the Chief re- 
plied : " Ah, Marquis, you young men are all in love with Mrs. 
Arnold. I see you are eager to be with her as soon as possi- 
ble. Go you and breakfast with her, and tell her not to wait 



THE CONSPIRACY EXPOSED. 127 

for me. I must ride down and examine the redoubts on this 
side of the river, but will be with her shortly." He therefore 
passed on down to the river, accompanied by Lafayette and 
Knox, while Alexander Hamilton and James McHenry, his 
aids, proceeded to the House, where breakfast was soon served. 
Mrs. Arnold was gay-hearted, totally unconscious, evidently, 
of the awful thunder-stroke impending. Arnold was so fear- 
fully impressed with the sense of his peril as to be unable to 
hide his emotion : he was abstracted and sullenly depressed. 
The crisis was approaching more rapidly than he could have 



In the midst of the repast the blow fell. A horseman rode 
up in great haste bearing a dispatch from Lieutenant-Colonel 
Jameson, commanding at North Castle, one of the lower sta- 
tions, stating that a spy named John Anderson had been ar- 
rested, having in his possession important papers. Andrd ar- 
rested, the papers discovered, no British army near, Washing- 
ton on the ground ! Surely, a heart less insensible to fear than 
that which Benedict Arnold bore in his breast, would have 
sunk under its load of guilt and its sense of danger. But, the 
bold bad man was not paralyzed to inaction. Summoning, 
with his finger, Mrs. Arnold from the breakfast table to her 
private room, he hastily told her that he was a ruined man 
and must flee for his life. She evidently apprehended the 
worst and fell into a swoon. He hastened from the room, dis- 
patched the bearer of the message from Colonel Jameson to 
her assistance, (doubtless to prevent him from conversing with 
Hamilton and McHenry,) seized the messenger's horse and 
was soon plunging, at a headlong pace, to the river, where his 
barge lay moored, but ever ready for service. Into it he 
sprang and bidding the oarsmen pull away at their best speed, 
as he must hasten his return to meet Washington, he sped like 
an arrow down the river toward the British sloop-of-war which 
lay below Teller's Point, awaiting Andre's return to her decks. 
The first intimation Colonel Kobinson had of Andre's fate was 
from Arnold, whose barge, bearing a flag of truce, having safe- 
ly passed the battery at Yerplanck's Point, came dashing up 
to the Vulture's sides just before noon of that eventful day. 



128 THE CONSPIRACY OF ARNOLD. 

The traitor sprang to her decks, turned over his faithful boat's 
crew as prisoners of war and hastened to the cabin to pen to 
Washington a letter begging for considerate attentions to Mrs. 
Arnold, whom he protested was " as good and innocent as an 
angel, and as incapable of doing wrong," This was one scene 
in the first act of that dreadful di-ama. 

Let us bring up the narrative of Andre's adventures by 
quoting from the accou.nt given of the matter by Alexander 
Hamilton in a letter written, after Andre's execution, to his 
friend Laurens. It is at once personal, concise and clear, 
and, coming from Hamilton's hand, possesses a double interest. 

* * * " The twentieth of last month, Robinson and Andre went 
uj) the river in the Vulture sloop-of-war. Robinson sent a flag to Ar- 
Eokl wdth two letters, one to General Putnam, enclosed in another to 
himself, proposing an interview with Putnam, or in his absence with 
Arnold, to adjust some private concerns. The one to General Putnam 
was evidently meant as a cover to the other, in case, by accident, the 
letters should have fallen under the inspection of a third person. 

" General Washington crossed the river on his way to Hartford, the 
day these dispatches arrived. Arnold, conceiving he must have heard 
of the flag, thought it neeessary for the sake of appearances, to submit 
the letters to him, and ask his oi^inion of the projDriety of complying 
with the request. The General, with his usual caution, though without 
the least surmise of the design, dissuaded him from it, and advised him 
to reply to Robinson, that whatever related to his private aft"airs must 
be of a civil nature, and could only properly be addressed to the civil 
authority. This reference fortunately deranged the plan, and was the 
first link in the chain of events that led to the detection. The interview 
could no longer take jDlace in the form of a flag, but was obliged to be 
managed in a secret manner. 

" Arnold employed one Smith to go on board the Vulture the night 
of the twenty-second, to bring Andre on shore with a pass for Mr. John 
Anderson. Andre came ashore accordingly, and was conducted within 
a picket of ours to the house of Smith, w' here Arnold and he remained 
together in close conference all that night and the day following. At 
daylight in the morning, the commanding officer at King's Ferry, with- 
out the i^rivity of Arnold, moved a couple of pieces of cannon to a 
point opposite to where the Vulture lay, and obliged her to take a 
more remote station. This event, or some lurking distrust, made the 
boatmen refuse to convey the two passengers back, and disconcerted 
Arnold so much, that by one of those strokes of infatuation which often 



HAMILTON'S LETTEE TO LAURENS. 129 

confound the schemes of men conscious of guilt, he insisted on Andre's 
exchanging his uniform for a disguise, and returning in a mode diflfcr- 
ent from that in which he came. Andre, who had been undesignedly 
brought within our jDOsts, in the first instance, remonstrated warmly 
against this new and dangerous expedient. But Arnold, persisting in 
declaring it impossible for him to return as he (jame, he at length re- 
luctantly yielded to his direction, and consented to change his dress, 
and take the route he recommended. Smith furnished the disguise, 
and in the evening passed King's Ferry with him, and proceeded to 
Cro'mpond, where they stopped the remainder of the night, (at the in- 
stance of a militia officer,) to avoid being suspecteRby him. The next 
morning they resumed their journey, Smith accompanying Andre a lit- 
tle beyond Pine's Bridge, where he left him. He had reached Tarry- 
town, when he was taken up by three militia men, who rushed out of 
the woods and seized his horse. At this critical moment, his presence 
of mind forsook him. Instead of producing his pass, which would have 
extricated him from our parties, and could have done him no harm with 
his owu, he asked the militia men if they were of the upper or lower 



Fac similie of the Pass given by Arnold to Andrd. 



130 THE CONSPIRACY OF ARNOLD. 

party, distinctive appellations known among the refugee corps. The 
militia men replied that they were of the lower party ; upon which he 
told them that he was a British officer, and pressed them not to detain 
him, as he was upon urgent business. This confession removed all 
doubt ; and it was in vain he afterwards j)roduced his pass. He was 
forced off to a place of greater security ; where, after a careful search, 
there were found concealed in the feet of his stockings, several pa^^ers 
of importance delivered to him by Arnold. Among these there were a 
plan of the fortifications of West Point; a memorial from the engineer, 
on the attack and defense of the place ; returns of the garrison, cannon 
and stores ; and a copy of the minutes of a council of war held by Gene- 
ral Washington a few weeks before, &c. The prisoner at first was in- 
advertently ordered to Arnold ; but, on recollection, while still on the 
way, he was countermanded and sent to old Salem. 

" The papers were enclosed in a letter to General Washington, which, 
having taken a route different from that by which he returned, made a 
circuit, that afforded leisure for another letter, through an ill-judged 
delicacy, written to Arnold, with information of Anderson's capture, to 
get to him an hour before General Washington arrived at his quarters, 
time enough to elude the fate that awaited him. He went down the 
river in his barge to the Vulture, with such precipitate confusion, that 
he did not take with him a single pajier useful to the enemy. On the 
first notice of the affair he was pursued, but much too late to be over- 
taken. 

" There was some color for imagining it was a part of the plan to be- 
tray the General into the hands of the enemy.» Arnold was very anx- 
ious to ascertain from him the precise day of his return, and the ene- 
my's movements seem to liave corresponded to this 2>oint. But, if so it was 
very injudicious. The success must have depended on surprise, and as 
the officers at the advanced posts were not in the secret, their measures 
might have given the alarm, and. General Washington taking coimnaud 
of the post, might have rendered the whole scheme abortive. Arnold, 
it is true, had so dispersed the garrison, as to have made a defense diffi- 
cult, but not impracticable ; and the acquisition of West Point was of 
such magnitude to the enemy, that it would have been unwise to connect 
it with any other object, however great, which might make the obtain- 
ing of it precarious. 

" Arnold, a moment before setting out, went into Mrs. Arnold's apart- 
ment, and informed her that some transactions had just come to light, 

* We infer that it was no part of Arnold's plan to betray Washington. Theie is 
no proof to sustain Hamilton's suspicions in this respect. Arnold's anxiety about 
Washington's return was upon his (Arnold's) own behalf. He would consummate 
the scheme before the Commander's return — as after it there would be little op- 
portunity for any further conference of the conspirators. 



ALLEGED COMPLICITY OF MRS. ARNOLD. 181 

which must forever banish him from his country. She fell into a swoon 
at this declaration, and he left her in it to consult his own safety, till 
the servants, alarmed by her cries, came to her relief. She remained 
frantic all day, accusing every one who approached her with an inten- 
tion to murder her child, (an infant in her arms,) and exhibiting every 
other mark of the most genuine and agonizing distress. Exhausted by 
the fatigue and tumult of her spirits, her frenzy subsided towards eve- 
ning, and she sunk into all the sadness of affliction. It was impossible 
not to have been touched with her situation : everything aflfecting in fe- 
male tears, or in the misfortmies of beauty, everything pathetic in the 
wounded tenderness of a wife, or in the ajjprehensive fondness of a 
mother, and, till I have reason to change the opinion, I will add, every- 
thing amiable in suffering innocence, conspired to make her an object 
of sympathy to all who were present. She experienced the most deli- 
cate attentions, and every friendly office, till her departure for Phila- 
delphia.» 

" Andr^ was, without loss of time, conducted to the headquarters of 

* See Parton's " Life of Aaron Burr," pages 126-27, for apparent proof of Mrs. 
Arnold's complicity in the whole plot. After quoting from Hamilton's account as 
given above, the author says : " It fell to Burr's lot to become acquainted with the 
repulsive truth. He was sitting one evening with Mrs. Prevost when the approach 
of a party of horse was heard, and, soon after, a lady, vailed and attired in a riding 
habit burst into the room, and hurrying toward Mrs. P. was on the point of ad- 
dressing her. Seeing a gentleman present, whom, in the dim light of the apart- 
ment she did not recognize, she paused and asked in an anxious tone : 

" ' Am I safe? Is this gentleman a friend? ' 

" ' Oh yes,' was Mrs. F.'s reply, ' he is my most particular friend, Colonel Burr.' 

" ' Thank God ! ' exclaimed Mrs. Arnold, for she it was : ' I've been playing the 
hypocrite and I'm tired of it.' 

" She then gave an account of the way she had deceived General Washington, 
Colonel Hamilton and the other American oflBcers, who, she said, believed her in- 
nocent of the treason and had given her an escort of horse from West Point. She 
made no scruple of confessing the part she had borne in the negotiations with the 
British General, and declared it was she who had induced her husband to do what 
he had done. She passed the night at Paramus, taking care to resume her acting 
of the outraged and frantic woman whenever strangers were present," 

This extraordinary statement would at once settle the question of Mrs. Arnold's 
guilt were it reliable, which it is not. Burr was not present at that reputed inter- 
view, but was told of it after his marriage with Mrs. Prevost. Even supposing he 
was present, as stated, would Mrs. Arnold, as a shrewd, designing woman, have 
cast off her disguise and avowed all to a Colonel then commanding in the American 
army ? The entire story is unsustained by evidence sufficient to give it authority. 
Irving, in his *' Life of Washington," evidently refers to the above story when he 
says : " In recent years it has been maintained that Mrs. Arnold was actually cog- 
nisant and participant of her husband's crimes; but, after carefully examining all 
the proofs adduced, we remain of opinion that she was innocent." 

17 



182 THE CONSPIEACY OF ARNOLD. 

the army, where he was immediately brought before a board of General 
officers, to prevent all possibility of misrepresentation or cavil on the 
part of the enemy." 

Washington's conduct throughout this affair was admirable 
in the extreme. He passed all the morning of the fatal day 
in inspecting West Point — having first breakfasted at Arnold's. 
No suspicion of the real state of affairs crossed his mind, though 
several things tended to excite his surprise. Colonel Jameson, 
when Andre was brought before him by Paulding, Van Wert 
and Williams — the captors of the spy — was quite disconcerted 
by the nature of the affair. In " Anderson's" pass he at once 
detected Arnold's complicity in the game of treason, and, sup- 
posing Washington to be still at Hartford, at once started 
Andrd off, under a guard, to Hartford — also sending along the 
important papers discovered. Yet, as if to give Arnold the 
alarm, Jameson dispatched a courier to the Kobinson House, 
where he arrived, as we have seen, on the morning of the 24th 
— a piece of folly only accounted for on the supposition that 
he did not clearly apprehend the true state of the case. Major 
Tallmadge, the next in command at North Castle, coming in 
soon after the dispatch of the prisoner and the couriers, per- 
ceived the great mistake made, and, at his earnest remonstrance, 
Andr6 was stopped at Salem, but Jameson failed to recal the 
courier then on his way to the Robinson House. The courier 
to Hartford having learned that Washington had returned to 
West Point, turned upon his track and, at Salem, was given a 
letter from Andr^ to Washington, confessing his name and 
rank, and offering a vindication for having assumed the char- 
acter of a spy. That letter was Major Tallmadge's first inti- 
mation of the true character of his prisoner. It, and the dis- 
patches by the courier, reached the Robinson House just be- 
fore noon of the 24th. Hamilton, as Washington's aid and 
secretary, broke the seals. That was their first apprisal of the 
act committed. Hamilton hastened out of the house to seek 
Washington, over the river, but, meeting the General, on his 
return, the two proceeded together to the house, where the full 
extent of the crime was soon comprehended. The Chief, though 
astounded, was not disconcerted- He ere long reappeared, and 



GEN. Wayne's opinion of Arnold. 133 

made confidants of Lafayette and Knox. To others tlie dis- 
covery was not revealed. " Whom can we trust now ? " was 
Washington's sad, solemn inquiry. 

To secure Arnold was his first thought; then care for 
the defenses became his source of anxiety. How many in and 
out of the garrison were implicated — how fully the scheme had 
been perfected — how quickly the British might move up the 
river for the assault, none knew. The suddenness of the dis- 
covery, the surprise, the extent of the villainy premeditated, 
the distrust of those around — all conspired to make Washing- 
ton's subordinates doubly eager to relieve the Chief's mind of 
its weight of apprehension. Hamilton hurried to Verplanck's 
Point, on horse, hoping to reach there in season to open guns 
on Arnold's barge ; but, the Conspirator already had flown be- 
yond reach : at that moment, so expeditious had been his 
movements, he was on the Vulture^ and his bargemen were 
prisoners of war. Hamilton returned to headquarters, bearing 
to Washington two letters sent ashore by flag of truce, from 
the British vessel — one from Arnold, already referred to, and 
one from Colonel Eobinson, Andre's coadjutor . in the enter- 
prise of infamy. The latter letter interceded for Andre's re- 
lease, saying that he was on shore under the protection and 
sanction of a flag of truce, by order of Arnold, who was autho- 
rized to give the permit, 

Washington dispatched a messenger to Greene, then in com- 
mand of the American army at Tappan, New Jersey, ordering 
up troops for immediate service in the garrison. Greene at 
once dispatched that most trusted of men, Anthony Wayne,* 

* Wayne's opinion of Arnold should be cited. He wrote to a friend in Congress : 
" There were a few gentlemen, who at a very early period of this war, became 
•cquainted with his true character. When you asked my opinion of that ofiBcer 
last winter, I gave it freely, and, I believe, you thought it rather strongly shaded. 
1 think I then informed you that I had the most despicable idea of him, both as a 
gentleman and a soldier, and that he had produced a conviction in me in 1776 that 
honor and true virtue were strangers to his soul ; and, however contradictory it 
might appear, that he never possessed either genuine fortitude or personal brave- 
ry, and that he rarely went in the way of danger but when stimulated by liquor 
even to intoxication." Wayne then cites cases of Arnold's peculative operations, 
wnrch would seem to confirm Governor Reed's charges of Arnold's dishonest small 
practtf 68. 



134 THE CONSPIRACY OF ARNOLD. 

With his Pennsylvania brigade. That inflexible patriot, writ 
ing of the affair on the 27th, said : 

" At twelve o'clock of the morning of the 25th, an express reached 
General Greene from his Excellency, (who had fortunately arrived at 
West Point on his return from Hartford,) to push on the nearest and 
best disciplined troops, with orders to gain the defile or pass over the 
Dunderburg before the enemy. The first Pennsylvania brigade moved 
immediately ; and, on the arrival of the second express, I was speedily 
followed by our gallant friend General Irvine, with the second brigade. 
Our march of sixteen miles was performed in four hours, during a dark 
night, without a single halt or a man left behind. When our approach 
was announced to the General, he thought it fabulous ; but when as- 
sured of the reality of his tenth legion being near him, he expressed 
great satisfaction and pleasure. 

" The protection of this important place is committed to the division 
under my command until a proper garrison arrives. We will disjiute 
the approaches to the works inch by inch, at the point of the bayonet, 
and, if necessary, decide the fate of the day in the gorge of the defiles 
at every expense of blood." 

There was patriotism in that man's heart. Had the British 
attempted to carry the works, we can well believe that " Mad 
Anthony" and his resolute ranks would have perished to a man 
before yielding up the fortress. No attempt, however, was 
made. Andrd alone held the order of arrangements in his 
keeping; and, though Clinton had troops awaiting Andre's 
orders, they were not used. Eodney's flotilla, which had been 
gathered with much care for the ascent of the river, was aban- 
doned. No doubt exists that great confidence was felt by 
Clinton in the success of Andre's negotiations, and he had ar- 
ranged to strike quickly and strong ere the American army at 
Tappan could move. 

Efforts to rescue Andre from his fate were numerous and 
earnest. Clinton wrote from New York on the 26th, demand- 
ing the release of his officer on the ground that he was pro- 
tected and covered by the pass of Arnold — that, having visit- 
ed the American lines under a flag of truce at the request of 
Arnold, then having a right to make the request, he was en- 
titled to be considered as covered by that flag. These were 
the grounds urged, as we have seen, by Colonel Eobinson from 
the Vultures cabin, but whose force Washington did not see. 



THE TRIAL OF MAJOR ANDRE. 135 

Arnold also wrote out liis views, in a note to Sir Henry, sus- 
taining his position in the matter. He said : 

" I commanded at that time, at West Point ; had an undoubted right 
to send my flag of truce to Major Andrt?, who came to me under that 
protection, and, having held conversation with him, I delivered to him 
confidential papers in my own hand-writing to deliver to your Excellen- 
cy. Thinking it much properer he should return by land, I directed him 
to make use of the feigned name of .John Anderson. * * All of which 
I then had a right to do, being in the actual service of America, under 
the orders of General Washington, and Commanding-General of West 
Point and its deijendencies." 

As if his orders to take command at West Point covered 
the right to conspire for its betrayal ! As if Andrd, disguised 
and secretly plotting for the ruin of his enemy within that 
enemy's lines, could be protected even by a " pass" of Wash- 
ington himself! The demand was a sublime assurance on 
Clinton's part, while Arnold's plea was that of a very great 
scoundrel. Still, Clinton was involved in the matter, for, un- 
der his fall sanction the " negotiations" had been carried on ; 
under his sanction the Vulture had gone up the river with 
Andr^ and Eobinson ; and, though Andr^ had gone ashore 
from the vessel on his own responsibility, against the wishes 
of Eobinson — although he had gone within the American lines 
and had taken treasonable correspondence in his keeping with- 
out orders — although he had, on his own judgment, taken a 
disguise and sought to return to New York by a long ride 
through the American lines — all these are but incidents to the 
one gi-eat crime permitted if not authorised by Clinton. 
Therefore his hand was not guiltless of Andre's fate. He felt 
the weight of his responsibility, and though he must have 
known, from the first announcement of the Major's arrest, that 
he would be tried as a spy and hung as a spy, yet he resolved 
to leave neither plea or threat untried to avert his merited 
fate. 

Andre was tried by a board of Greneral officers — six Major- 
Gen erals and eight Brigadiers — Greneral Greene presiding. The 
hearing was upon the citations of Washington, which Hamil- 
ton gives as follows : 

"Major Andre, Adjutant-General to the British army, will be brought 



186 THE CONSPIRA.CY OF ARNOLD. 

before you for your examination. He came within our lines in the night 
on an interview with Major-General Arnold, and in an assumed charac- 
ter ; and was taken within our lines, in a disguised habit, with a pass 
under a feigned name, and with the enclosed papers concealed upon 
him. After a careful examination, you will be pleased, as speedily as 
possible, to report a precise state of his case, together with your opinion 
of the light in which he ought to be considered, and the punishment 
that ought to be inflicted. The Judge Advocate will attend to assist in 
the examination, who has sundry other papers relative to this matter, 
which he will lay before the board." 

"When brought before the board" Hamilton wrote, " he met 
with every mark of indulgence and was required to answer no 
interrogatory which would even embarrass his feelings. On 
his part, while he carefully concealed everything that might 
implicate others, he frankly confessed all the facts relating to 
himself, and, upon his confession, without the trouble of ex- 
amining a witness, the board made up their report." Briefly 
surveying the circumstances of the case, the board was of 
opinion that Major Andre, Adjutant-Greneral of the British 
army, ought to be considered a spy from the enemy,, and, 
agreeably to the law and usage of nations, ought to suffer 
death. This decision Washington approved and ordered the 
execution to take place October 1st. Andr^ comported him- 
self with firmness and evinced gratitude for the considerate 
manner in which he had been treated. By his gentlemanly 
deportment, his unflinching resolution, his anxiety for others, 
he won the hearts of all. Not an American officer but would 
have rejoiced at some pretext for his exchange or acquittal. 
Even after the sentence it was intimated by Lafayette, to Cap- 
tain Ogden — bearer of dispatches to the British, apprising 
Clinton of Andre's fate — that if Arnold were given up Andrd 
would be exchanged for him. This intimation Ogden was au- 
thorised to make to the enemy and did so in his interview with 
the British officer commanding at Paulus' Hook. The matter 
was laid before Clinton who rejected the suggestion as inad- 
missable with honor or principle. 

Eeceiving the report of the military board, and learning of 
the sentence of execution, Clinton agam wrote to "Washington 
(Sept. 80th) assuming that the board had not been rightly in- 



BRITISH INTERCESSJON, 



137 



formed of all the circumstances upon whicli to form a correct 
judgment ; and that, in order to have the matter properly 
represented he urged a suspension of proceedings until his 
commissioners could be heard. October 1st was fixed for 
Andre's execution, but the request of Clinton was granted and 
proceedings were stayed to await the issue of this professedly 
fuller information. On the morning of October 1st, three per- 
sons, viz : Lieutenant- Grovernor Elliott, Chief Justice Smith 
(brother of the Smith at whose house the treason was consum- 
mated) and Lieutenant-General Eobertson, accompanied by 
Colonel Eobinson, Andre's confidant, went up to Dobbs' Ferry 
by vessel. The commission asked a safe conduct to Washing- 
ton, but General Greene who was in attendance, would only 
permit Lieutenant-General Eobertson to come ashore — he be- 
ing the only military officer in the embassy. A long confer- 
ence followed. Eobertson had nothing new to offer ; he only 

Andrd'B Pen Photograph of himself, made the day after his capture. 




138 THE CONSPIRACY OF ARNOLD. 

urged the points already made in Andre's defense — all of which 
Greene declared inadmissable. Eobertson solicited permission 
to see Washington, but Greene — doubtless by orders of the 
Commander-in-Chief — refused permission and reported the 
matter to his superior. Eobertson delivered to Greene a second 
letter from Arnold to Washington, which was properly deliv- 
ered. It reasserted his (Arnold's) right as commanding officer 
of the department to cover Andre's admission to the American 
lines, that his power to issue a pass fully covering Andre's 
person was indisputable. He insisted that he had a command- 
er's right to transact the business in which Andre was con- 
cerned, and then added this remarkable threat : 

"If after this just and candid representation of Major An- 
dre's case, the board of General of&cers shall adhere to their 
former opinion, I shall suppose it dictated by passion and re- 
sentment ; and if that gentleman should suffer the severity of 
their sentence, I shall think myself bound, by every tie of 
duty and honor, to retaliate on sach unhappy persons of your 
army as may fall within my power, that the respect due to 
flags and to the laws of nations may be better understood and 
observed. 

" I have further to observe that forty of the principal inhab- 
itants of South Carolina have justly forfeited their lives, which 
have hitherto been spared by the clemency of his Excellency, 
Sir Henry Clinton, who cannot in justice extend his mercy to 
them any longer, if Major Andrd suffers ; which, in all proba- 
bility will open a scene of blood at which humanity shudders. 

" Suffer me to entreat your Excellency, for your own sake 
and the honor of humanity, and the love you have of justice, 
that you suffer not an unjust sentence to touch the life of Ma- 
jor Andrd But if this warning should be disregarded, and 
he suffer, I call heaven and earth to witness that your Excel- 
lency will be justly answerable for the torrent of blood that 
may be spilt in consequence." 

This note excited only indignation in Washington's breast : 
it was worthy of Arnold but unworthy of Clinton, to whom 
its contents must have been known. Greene soon dispatched 
a brief epistfe to Eobertson, stating that the Commander-in- 



Arnold's attempted justification. 139 

Chief's conclusions were not modified by his (Robertson's) 
representations. To this the commissioner replied, assuming 
that Greene could not have reported the matter fully. He 
therefore addressed "Washington, stating his views and points 
at length. They were, however, fruitless, and Andre was ex- 
ecuted on the succeeding day. His bearing to the last was 
that of a man conscious of having done only his duty. He 
made no recriminations, uttered no protests, but walked to 
death as a soldier should. If his conscience arraigned him 
for the base part he had played it was not made apparent. He 
died on the scaffold, and forthwith was canonized by the Bri- 
tish nation as a martyr in its behalf 

The story of Arnold's career, after his safe arrival in the 
British camp, is one of dishonor. His first efforts were direct- 
ed toward the release of Andr6 ; these failing, he next issued 
an " address" to the people of America. In this document he 
sought to vindicate his memory, falsifying and dissimulating 
to the end. He said that in the beginning he had only taken 
up arms to secure a redress of grievances ; a falsehood, because 
he had entered the field as all other patriots did — to drive the 
British from American soil, and, had asseverated his right to 
promotion because of the services rendered in the cause of in- 
dependence. He regarded the Declaration of Independence 
as precipitate, while subsequent offers of the British Govern- 
ment had rendered it unnecessary — a statement as unpatriotic 
as it was dastardly in one who had never lisped such words 
until branded with infamy by his countrymen. He inveighed 
against the Continental Congress for its rejection of terms 
offered by the British Crown without submitting those offers to 
the people — a singular charge considering the brutal excesses 
committed by the British to enforce their "overtures." His last 
giievance — that which had most stirred his honorable pride 
and Christian principle, was the alliance with France, the 
enemy of Protestantism and of liberty. That alliance had 
filled the cup of his indignation and had determined his course ! 
What to the mass of American patriots was succor in time of 
their greatest need — what to them was a new lease of life and 
hope — to Benedict Arnold was a humiliation. It were better 
18 



140 THE CONSPIRACY OF ARNOLD. 

even for his name that that excuse for his defection from the 
cause of hberty and honor had not been offered. 

He forgot to state, in this address, the amount of British 
gold and the military commission paid for his desertion. 

This document was accompanied by a proclamation address- 
ed especially to the officers and soldiers of the Continental 
army, inviting them to rally under the Cross of St. George and 
to fight for the true interests of their country and for liberty. 
To such as would come to his embraces large bounties and 
generous subsistence supplies were volunteered, as well az 
compensation for all the accoutrements and implements of wai 
which they might steal and bring in with them. 

It is needless to say the address and proclamation onlj 
heightened the disgust felt for the miscreant and poltroon- 
Washington said : "I am at a loss which to admire most, tho 
confidence of Arnold in publishing it, or the folly of the enemy 
in supposing that a production signed by so infamous a char- 
acter will have any weight with the people of these States, or 
any influence upon our officers abroad." A few cut-throats 
and renegades then within the British lines answered his call 
— -just enough to give him a body guard adapted in character 
for his special service. 

His wife was made to feel the weight of his crimes. Though 
given a safe escort to Philadelphia she was quickly ordered, 
by the Executive Council, to leave the State, not to return 
during the war. Fourteen days only were allowed for prepa- 
ration. This order was issued in the firm conviction that she 
was privy to the plot, and had acted a part in the affair with 
Andre. But, to add to the supposition of her guiltlessness it 
is stated that, before the order of banishment was issued, she 
had determined to procure a legal separation from her husband 
" to whom" Irving says " she could not endure the thought of 
returning after his dishonor." Irving also quotes from a letter 
written at that time by one of her relatives, who said : " We 
tried every means to prevail on the Council to permit her to 
stay among us, and not to compel her to go to that infernal 
villain, her husband. Mr. Shippen (her father) had promised 
the Council, and Mrs. Arnold had signed a writing to the same 



ATTEMPT TO TAKE THE TEAITOR. 141 

purpose, engaging not to write to General Arnold any letters 
whatever, and to receive no letters without showing them to 
the Council, if she were permitted to stay." But, to no pur- 
pose. Public and private opinion set in so strongly against 
her that she was forced to proceed to New York, where she 
rejoined her husband, and thereafter — without a murmur as 
far as any evidence exists — shared his fortunes. It must have 
been a dreadful decree if she indeed were guiltless of compli- 
city in his crime. 

Thus ends the chapter of Arnold's Conspiracy. We might, 
with interest to the reader, pursue the traitor's fortunes ; might 
advert to his desolating and teiTible visitation upon Virginia, 
and to his destruction of New London in his native State ; 
might trace his after career in St. John's, N. B., in the West 
Indies and in England — the most despised and shunned of 
men ; but all these matters belong rather to general history 
and to biography than to our province. We may, however, 
refer to the efforts made, with Washington's consent, to secure 
the person of the traitor. 

The defection of Arnold resulted in a wide spread suspicion 
that others were engaged in the conspiracy, and names were 
whispered to Washington which gave him great uneasiness, as 
well as pain. General St. Clair's was mentioned so confident- 
ly as Arnold's confederate, that the Commander-in-Chief re- 
solved to investigate the implicatory charges. To this end, by 
secret emissaries, he reached New York, penetrated to Sir 
Henry Clinton's confidence and wormed the truth from Arnold. 
Nothing was learned to implicate any others. St. Clair was 
thus relieved of an odious imputation, which, if it had not 
been wiped away at that time might hhve stained his name 
forever. Washington felt great relief at the result of the in- 
vestigations. 

Major Henry Lee, who conducted the investigation, it would 
appear, conceived a plan for Arnold's abduction. So earnest 
was the desire of all, both ofiicers and men, to secure the traitor 
for punishment that any enterprise however hazardous, which 
had for its purpose Arnold's capture, would have found ready 
vol unteers. But, secure within the British lines, no plan was 



142 THE CONSPIRACY OF ARNOLD. 

feasible whicli necessitated the open use of force. Lee's ready 
mind turned to stratagem. His agents were instructed to learn 
all about the traitor's place of residence, bis habits, and, if 
possible, his plans — an injunction faithfully performed, since, 
through his faithful spies, he became possessed of all informa- 
tion necessary to perfect the project for his capture. Having 
conceived his plan of operations, Lee consulted with the Com- 
mander-in-Chief, and, after much canvassing of the affair, ob- 
tained from him the necessary consent to put his scheme on 
foot.' 

John Champe, Sergeant-major of cavalry in Lee's legion of 
light horse, was the chosen instrument of the enterprise. He 
was a resolute, cool and sagacious man, admirably fitted for 
such a service, which he undertook only after much persua- 
sion. In its execution, it would be necessary for hun to cover 
his name with the dishonor of a deserter and to link himself 
to Arnold's hated person — an ordeal that the patriotic dragoon 
shrank from encountering. His consent being won it was ar- 
ranged that he should desert to the enemy, make his way to 
New York, there to seek Arnold's household and obtain ser- 
vice in it in such a capacity as would place him near the trait- 
or's person. In this he had a confederate — a New Jersey boat- 
man who had long acted as a spy and, from being accounted a 
friend of the British, had easy access by boat to the city, bear- 
ing news and fresh provisions to the of&cers. Between these 
two it was planned to seize Arnold at night, in one of his soh- 
tary walks in the garden, to bear him to the boat moored in 
the river at the foot of the garden, and to pull out in the 
darkness for the Hoboken shore, where Lee was to be in at- 
tendance with a guard and horses to spirit the prisoner away 

» Irving says the plan was formed at Washington's suggestion. He is in error. 
Lee's emissaries, by reporting that Arnold resided in a place bordering on the 
Hudson, suggested the idea, to the bold Major of dragoons, of Arnold's capture. 
Laying the plan before the Commander-in-Chief it was approved by him. Lee, 
therefore, should have the credit of having conceived the enterprise. Washington 
expressly stipulated that Arnold should be brought in alive. He said : " No cir- 
cumstance whatever shall obtain my consent to his being put to death. The idea 
which would accompany such an event would be that rufiBans had been hired to 
assassinate him. My aim is to make a public e.xample of him." To all of which 
both Lee and Champe assented. 



ATTEMPT TO CAPTURE THE TRAITOR. 143 

to Washington's headquarters. The chief difficulty in the 
outset was for the Sergeant to effect his escape in safety. So 
vigilant were the troopers that, to elude their pickets was al- 
most impossible, while, if discovered and pursued, capture was 
almost inevitable. If captured, the poor fellow would be un- 
der the necessity of appealing to the clemency of his drum-head 
court by confessing the whole affair, if he would escape being 
shot — a confession mortifying to make since it would impli- 
cate both Washington and Lee, while it was not then desirable 
to make the design for the traitor s capture known. 

All worked well. Champe, after close pursuit succeeded in 
taking refuge in a British guard-boat on the Hudson — barely 
escaping cajDture at the hands of his indignant comrades. Lee's 
dilatoriness in ordering the pursuit saved his messenger from 
recapture. Once in the British lines the dragoon made his 
way to Arnold, and, by representing that he had deserted from 
the famous light horse corps, was at once attached to the ser- 
vice of his intended victim. The seizure was arranged for an 
early consummation. The Jerseyman apprised Lee of every- 
thing, and all things promised success. Arnold walked night- 
ly in the garden : the nights were not light ; Champe and his 
confederate could penetrate to the place, and thus the moment 
of abduction was definitely fixed. But, alas for the happy 
issue so confidently contemplated ! The day before his pro- 
jected seizure Arnold moved his quarters and that night wit- 
nessed the total miscarriage of the hazardous enterprise. Lee 
waited on the Hoboken shore all night long for the expected 
boat, with its prize, but waited in vain. He returned to head- 
quarters at Tappan, to report a failure to Washington. The 
Commander-in-Chief was much concerned in regard to tlie 
matter, apprehending that Champe had been detected, and 
would, in consequence, suffer death for his devotion to orders. 
But, no harm came to the bold sergeant further than that he 
was made to embark, as one of Arnold's American legion, in 
the Virginia expedition, to participate in an outrage upon his 
native State, which history has not failed to condemn. He 
succeeded, eventually, in effecting his escape, and after nearly 
a year's absence returned to his comrades, to receive their con- 



144 THE CONSPIRACY OF ARNOLD. 

gratulations and the thanks of the Commander-in-Chief The 
army and the people that scorned the name of Arnold delight- 
ed to honor that of Champe, the humble Sergeant-major of 
cavalry. 



RETOLT OF THE PENNSTLTANIA LINE. 



The winter of 1780-81 was one of depression to the Patriot 
cause. To want of success in the field came that of disappoint- 
ment in the effect of French co-operation, upon which much 
reliance had been placed by Washington, by Congress, by the 
army and by the people. Public finances were at their lowest 
ebb of credit : a handfull of Continental bills being the value 
of a dinner. The army, illy clothed and worse paid, was dis- 
contented and turbulent. Many troops, whose term of enlist- 
ment had expired, excited dismay at their clamors for a proper 
requital for their services. " Commerce was almost exhausted ; 
there was not sufficient natural wealth on which to found a 
revenue ; paper currency had depreciated through want of 
funds for its redemption until it was nearly worthless. The 
mode of supplying the army by assessing a proportion of the 
productions of the earth had proved ineffectual, oppressive and 
productive of alarming opposition. Domestic loans yielded 
but trifling assistance. The patience of the army was nearly 
exhausted ; the people were dissatisfied with the mode of sup- 
porting the war, and there was reason to apprehend that, under 
the pressure of impositions of a new and odious kind, they had 
only exchanged one kind of tyranny for another."' Washing- 
ton, Hamilton, Greene, Wayne, Lafayette, apprehending the 
worst, plead Congress in terms which to us now seem even 
pitiful, for action to relieve the depression and dissatisfaction 
so generally prevalent. Under the stress of their petition 
John Laurens was dispatched (by commission dated Dec. 28th, 
1780) to Versailles, there to seek the aid in means and men 

» living's " Waslungton,"^ vol. iv. page 210. 



146 REVOLT OF THE PENNSYLVANIA LINE. 

whicli alone seemed able to avert the impending disintegration 
of the army and the consequent failure of the Revolution. 

Brigadier-Greoeral Anthony Wayne, then commanding the 
First Pennsylvania brigade, as early as Sej^tember 17th, 1780, 
wrote to President Reed, of Pennsylvania, as follows : 

" When I look to a period fast approaching, I discover tlie most 
gloomy prospects and distressing objects presenting themselves ; and 
when I consider the mass of people who now compose this army will 
dissolve by the first of January (excejit a little corj^s enlisted for the war, 
badly paid and worse fed) I dread the consequence, as the5.e melancholy 
facts may have a most unhappy influence on their minds when oj^posed 
to a well appointed, jjuissant and desolating army." 

To other influential men of his State he wrote in a similar 
strain. To Robert Morris, the great financier (Nov. 9 th), after 
referring to the disasters which must follow to American arms 
if the troops were not immediately cared for, he said : 

" Let me, therefore, as a friend and fellow-citizen, call upon you, in 
the most solemn manner, to meet the other part of the Assembly and 
Council with temper. Let party prejudices subside. Meddle not now 
with the Constitution, as the time is drawing nigh when the magnum 
concilium of Pennsylvania will be necessarily convened to decide upon 
its case. Exert every power for the immediate completion of your quota 
of troops ; establish magazines of jDrovisions ; adopt some efficacious 
measure to procure a quantity of specie ; and, at all events, find means 
to clothe the soldiers belonging to the State by the first of January." 

In another letter he said : 

" Poorly clothed, badly fed and worse paid — some of them not having 
received a paper dollar for near twelve months ; exposed to winter's 
piercing cold, to drifting snows and chilling blasts with no protection 
but old, worn-out coals, tattered linen overalls and but one blanket be- 
tween three men. In this situation the enemy begin to work upon their 
passions, and have found means to circulate some proclamations among 
them." 

These were indeed 'times which tried men's souls.' There 
must have been a tremendous weight of patriotism upon the 
breasts of the patriot soldiers generally to have kept down 
their griefs and to have soothed their absolute sufferings. The 
case of the Pennsylvania line troops, however, was peculiar, 
and the revolt here recorded in all probability would not have 
occurred had their only cause of complaint been scanty rations, 
poor clothing and no pay. These men had enlisted for " three 



DISORDERLY STATE OF AFFAIRS. 147 

years or during the war." Their three years expired in the 
fall of 1780, but they were refused their discharge, on the 
ground that their term of service was not for three years, but 
during the war — a construction at variance with the plain 
meaning of the stipulation and one rejected by all authorities : 
it meant three years if the war should last so long. Irving 
calls the construction made, chicanery. 

The brigade of Wayne ' went into winter quarters at Mor- 
ristown, New Jersey, where the troops proceeded to erect huts 
for their protection — a labor in which the officers participated 
to cheer their shivering men. Wayne said: "the officers in 
general, as well as myself, find it necessary to stand for hours 
every day exposed to wind and weather among the poor na- 
ked fellows while they are working at their huts and redoubts, 
often assisting with our own hands in order to procure a con- 
viction to their minds that we share, and more than share, 
every vicissitude in common with them, sometimes asking to 
participate in their bread and water. The good effect of this 
conduct is very conspicuous, and prevents their murmuring in 
public ; but the delicate mind and eye of humanity are hurt, 
very much hurt, at their visible distress and private complain- 
ings." This temporary obedience to orders soon gave way 
before the growing discontent. A spirit of insubordination 
spread rapidly, encouraged as it was by a few riotous charac- 
ters and by secret emissaries of Sir Henry Clinton — who was 
fally informed of the critical state of affairs, and sought by 
every means to profit by it. The men from being sullen, be- 
came insolent. They committed all manner of excesses among 
the surrounding farmers, and threatened retaliation upon any 
officer who questioned their right to " help themselves." In 
Wayne they found a sympathizing fellow-soldier, but a stern, 
unflinching commander — one who would be obeyed. He ar- 
rested and severely punished the marauders. Strong sentinels 
were stationed around the encampment, and every out-going 
or returning soldier was rigidly examined ; if his pass was not 
authentic he was seized and sent to the guard house for trial 

» Wayne's brigade was the First— Irvine's the Second of the Pennsylvauia line 
(regular) troops. The reyolt was confined to the First brigade. 

19 



148 REVOLT OF THE PENNSYLVANIA LINE. 

Every hut was visited by the inspection-guard nightly, after 
tattoo-beating, to see that all the inmates, whose names were 
inscribed on the door, were there, "Washington wrote Wayne 
from his headquarters at New Windsor, 28th of December, ex- 
pressing great satisfaction at the arrangements of the camp, and 
the course being pursued. He advised that he had ordered 
800 of 2000 shirts (donated by the Philadelphia ladies) to be 
forwarded to Wayne's brigade. The letter did not reach him 
'in time to stay the storm, so long anticipated, of an oj^en in- 
surrection. Between the hours of nine and ten, on the evening 
of Jan. 1st (1781), the men rushed from their huts, seized upon 
ai-ms, ammunition and provisions, secured six pieces of artille- 
ry, and horses from the stables,' This formidable step was 
followed by the declaration that they not only were going to 
abandon their quarters but were determined to march upon 
Philadelphia and redress their grievances by their guns. 

The officers flew to arms. Wayne rushed among the men, 
followed by his aids. Cocking his pistols he threatened death 
to the leaders of the mutiny. Instantly a platoon of muskets 
were leveled at his breast One of the leaders spoke out : " We 
love you, we respect you, but you are a dead man if you fire. 
Do not mistake us. We are not going to the enemy. On the 
contrary, were they now to come out, you would see us fight 
under your orders, with as much resolution and alacrity as 
ever." He did not fire, but attempted to use his authority to 
disperse the men. Three regiments, still true to their General, 
were paraded under arms. A conflict ensued, in which num- 
bers were wounded on both sides and one Captain (Bitting) 
killed. The mutineers were so strong as, not only to overcome 
all opposition, but to compel the three regiments named to join 
their ranks ; when, numbering 1300 strong, the march was 
taken up for Philadelphia via Princeton. Wayne immediate- 
ly dispatched two of his leading officers to Philadelphia, to 

» Irving says the men were under the influence of liquor. We do not know hia 

authority for this statement. K they had had an additional glass of grog, in honor 

of the New Year, it was not the cause of the outbreak which, evidently, had long 

been contemplated, and arranged for the day upon which they should have been 

according to theii" interpretation of their enlistment) discharged. 



ADVANCE ON PHILADELPHIA. 151 

apprise Congress of the movement. He wrote Imrriedly to 
Washington detailing the particulars of the affair, and then 
followed on after the men, striving by all the means in his 
power to bring them back to duty — or, at least, to forego their 
desertion of their quarters, until deputies could be sent to Con- 
gress to arrange all difficulties. They would not be stayed. 
Wayne, gallantly assisted by Colonels Butler and Stewart, 
then ordered out the militia. " Alarm-fires were kindled upon 
the hills ; alarm-guns boomed from post to post," says Irving ; 
" the country was soon on the alert." Advancing to Prince- 
ton a halt was there made by the leaders of the insurrection- 
ists — fearing to pass beyond that point, and feeling strong 
in it 

Philadelphia was thrown into consternation by the news. 
Congress immediately dispatched a committee to meet the in- 
surgents. President Eeed and other State officers also hasten- 
ed forward to the scene of excitement, halting at Trenton, 
along with the committee, in order to confer with Wayne, who 
still was with the troops, in an equivocal position, being neither 
their commander, nor yet utterly without authority. The 
Governor wrote to Wayne, soliciting an interview four miles 
from Princeton — remai'king that, after the indignities heaped 
by the men upon General St. Clair, the Marquis Lafayette and 
Colonel Laurens (whom they had ordered out of the camp at 
short notice) he could not place himself in a position to receive 
similar treatment. This letter Wayne read aloud to the men 
on parade. It touched their pride to the quick : to think that 
their own beloved President, who had come to redress their 
injuries, could not trust himself in their hands! The good, 
leaven of reason and confidence began to work. At this mo- 
ment two of Clinton's agents arrived on the spot, making the 
most enticing overtures to the troops for their services. This 
fired their indignation and their patriotism. They seized the 
emissaries of the British commander as spies, handing them 
over to Wayne, by whom they were afterwards hanged, at 
Trenton cross-roads. 

President Keed, on the mornmg of the 7th, however, at 
Wayne's request, ventured into the encampment AH there 



152 REVOLT OF THE PENNSYLVANIA LINE. 

was precision and order, and Eeed was r&spectfally saluted as 
he passed. Throngh Wayne, the President proceeded to offer 
terms of accommodation. Through Wayne, the insurgents 
repHed. They still trusted their old commander entirely. 
After considerable correspondence terms were arranged, which 
proved that kindness was more potent than the sword. The 
■insurrection was at an end. Some were discharged from ser- 
vice ; some on forty days' furlough ; all were to be supplied 
with specified clothing ; certificates were granted for such de- 
preciation in the currency as the troops had been compelled to 
suffer from ; arrears of pay were to be provided for as soon as 
possible. This arranged, the brigade dissolved and was soon 
entirely dispersed. 

These terms were distasteful to Washington, for he appre- 
hended that, as a precedent, the settlement under compulsion 
would be bad. So it proved. A portion of the Jersey line 
stationed at Pompton revolted, on the night of Jan. 20th, claim- 
ing the same terms granted the Pennsylvania line. As in the 
previous revolt Clinton's agents were ready with tempting 
offers to turn the troops from their allegiance to the patriot 
cause. This second revolt, however, the Commander-in-Chief 
determined to suppress by force of arms, at all hazards, and to 
shoot the leaders as a warning against future attempts. Major- 
General Howe, with a detachment from the trusty Massachu- 
setts hue, surprised the mutineers early one morning, in their 
huts. Only five minutes were granted to parade without arms 
and surrender the leaders. This surprise, and the determined 
bearing of the officer, compelled them to his terms. Two of 
the ringleaders were instantly shot. Thus an effectual end 
was put to further insurrections. Washington proved to the 
army that his mercy could never be tempered to mutineers : 
obedience to allegiance first — accommodation of differences 
afterwards, was his policy. As he wrote [see p. 173] regarding 
the insurrection in Massachusetts : '■'■ influence i^ not governmeiit." 
His life was order and symmetry itself, and his course of ac- 
tion was such as to reduce disorder by a display of the hand 
of authority. Such men are made to govern. 



THE "STATE OF FRANKLM" EMEUTE. 



" By such rash and irregular conduct, a precedent is formed for every 
district, and even for every county in the State, to claim the right of 
separation and independency for any supposed grievance of the inhab- 
itants, as caprice, pride and ambition shall dictate, at pleasure, thereby 
exhibiting to the world a melancholy instance of a feeble or pusillani- 
mous Government, that is either unable or dares not restrain the lawless 
designs of its citizens. I know, with reluctance, the State will be driven 
to arms ; it will be the last alternative to imbrue her hands in the blood 
of her citizens ; but if no other ways or means are found to save her 
honor and reclaim her headstrong, refractory citizens but this last sad 
expedient, her resources are not yet so exhausted or her spirits damped 
but she may take satisfaction for this great injustice received, and re- 
gain her government over the revolted territory, or render it not worth 
possessing." 

These were the words of a proclamation issued by tlie G-ov- 
ernor of North Carolina, April 25th, 1785, addressed to the 
people of the "Washington District." Lying on the western 
slope of the Alleghanies, in the vallies of the Holston and the 
Wautaga rivers, it was a ' world to itself,' shut in by the great 
Appalachian ridges on the north, east and west. Thus isolat- 
ed its settlers had, prior to the Eevolution, formed for them- 
selves a government — primitive and crude, yet substantial — 
which they called the "Watauga Government." This was 
represented by four delegates in the Convention assembled at 
Halifax, North Carolina, 1772. In 1777 one of these dele- 
gates, John Sevier, was a member of the North Carolina " House 
of Commons," and procured for the Watauga people a full re- 
cognition of their claims as an integral section of tlie Stata 
Their territory — afterwards comprised in the three counties of 



15-i THE STATE OF FRANKLIN EMEUTE. 

"Washington, Greene and Sullivan — was made a judicial dis- 
trict, and' called the "Washington District." It now reposes 
in the quiet regions of East Tennessee, disturbed in its pris- 
tine valley-silence only by the whirr of wheels and the shrieks 
of the rushing messengers of trade and travel. During the 
War of Independence its inhabitants were not drawn much 
into the contest until during the fall of 1780, when they sud- 
denly swooped down upon Cornwallis' advance under Fergu- 
son, and, at the glorious battle of King's Mountain (Oct. 7th), 
performed signal service under the leadership of Sevier.' Sur- 
rounded as they were by hostile Indians, the inhabitants of the 
District were not permitted to enter into the Continental ser- 
vice as a distinct military body, though many of them found 
their way over the mountain^ to mingle in the struggle for 
liberty. 

In 1785 they were in revolt against the State, whose autho- 
rity over them ever had been the merest form, and whose be- 
nefits had been truly nominal. The District, by the voice of 
the people, throiigh their delegates in Convention assembled, 
voted to secede from North Carolina, and to erect a common- 
wealth of their own, to be called the " State of Franklin.'" In 
this act the hydra of Secession was born : "" how it was viewed 

* Irving, in his " Life of Washington," vol. iv. pages 187-93, refers, in terms of 
high praise, to those " warriors of the wilderness." 

2 We have said in another work f" History of the Southern Eebellion" vol. i. 
pages 12, 13, 16] that Jefferson, by his Kentucky resolutions, became the author 
of Secession. He was such, in effect, though Sevier and his co-workers were first 
to act upon the higher-law principle of " popular sovereignty." Jefferson talked 
for States ; Sevier used the right assumed by the Great Lawgiver as inhering to 
the State to apply also io parts of a State. Jefferson taught the superiority of the 
State over the National Government ; Sevier fought for the superiority of three 
counties over the State. Jefferson concocted the phrases and forms of political 
and social disintegration ; Sevier enforced the principle. The Virginian may have 
learned of Seveir; Sevier certainly did not learn of Jefferson. The " Governor" 
of the •' State of Franklin," however, struck the keynote of inter-State revolution 
too soon — before the General Government and National Executive had existence ; 
Jefferson struck it in 1798, and, therefore, may be regarded as wet nurse of the 
infant dragon ; his voice taught it to lisp its numbers and to use its relentless teeth. 
Fortunately for Jefferson's succeeding course he was abroad in 1778 — as our 
Minister to France. Had he been in Virginia he might have had to commit himself on 
the question of Secession, as some of his coadjutors had to do in suppressing the 



DISTRACTED CONDITION OF AFFAIRS. 155 

by tlie Governor, Council and Legislature of North Carolina, 
may be inferred by the quotation above given from the pro- 
clamation of April 25th. 

This movement for separation originated in the act of the 
North Carolina Legislature ceding to the Confederation all 
territory west of the Alleghanies. This cession was in response 
to a call of Congress for such an appropriation by all the States 
having untenanted lands, which were to be used as a resource 
for liquidating the then enormous public debt. The Confed- 
eration was but a rope of sand ; its Congress virtually had no 
power whatever over the States ; both lived simply by the 
sufferance of the people. Even the expenses of Congress, from 
1782 to '87, were unprovided for — no authority existing to levy 
taxes for its sustenance ! The States volunteered aid or with- 
held it, as they saw fit.' They enacted laws at variance with 
the interests of other States and of the Confederation.' Their 
Governors assumed prerogatives of supreme executors, and 
looked with disdain upon a Congress without power.' Dissolu- 
tion and civil war seemed imminent. Yet Congress struggled 
desperately to maintain the Government, to sustain its credit, 
and to place its Departments in a condition of efl&ciency. It 
enacted laws of a salutary character, though many of its en- 
actments necessarily were merely speculative, or were dead 
letters from want of power to enforce them. It called upon 
the States, again and again, to uphold the Confederate treasu- 
ry and executive. It levied assessments, imposts, excise, to 
receive but the shadow of a return. It borrowed with no pow- 
er to pay. It issued bonds which found few purchasers at any 
price. 

fires kindled in the south western counties by Sevier's ideas. Patrick Heury, aa 
Governor of Virginia, was, during 1785, called upon to threaten all unlawful com- 
binations with the punishment due to all who disturbed the harmony and offended 
the majesty of the State. Had Jefferson occupied Henry's seat he might have 
committed himself against the revolutionary idea. 

* See author's " History of Southern Rebellion,'" vol. i. page 207, for the^. pro- 
portion contributed by each of the States toward the general expenses. 

■ See Hamilton's " History of the Republic," vol. iii. chap. xlii. Also Irving'a 
•' Washington," vol. iv. chap. xxvi. 

» See Hamilton, vol, iv. page 238. 



156 THE STATE OF FRANKLIJT EMEUTE. 

North Carolina answered the call for aid as stated. But, 
this transfer of soil without consent aroused the hardy and 
somewhat turbulent population of the territory ceded to an 
indignant opposition. The cession was made in June, 1784 ; 
in August, the same year, a Convention of the people of the 
three counties (Washington, Greene and Sullivan) assembled 
to take action in the matter. Sevier was a ruling spirit. He 
adrocated a rejection of the right of cession and claimed the 
right of secession. His views prevailed ; the Convention de- 
clared, by a unanimous voice, the independence of their coun- 
ties from all State relations and control. This declaration ap- 
parently gave popular satisfaction, since, aside from the Legis 
lature's action in giving away their territory, the people of the 
District had several grievances of an exciting character to stir 
up bitterness against that Legislature. August 24th a decla 
ration and "form of government" were issued setting forth, in 
true secession style, the glories to attend upon the new State. 
It was provided that contiguous counties in Virginia might 
participate in the movement and become joint heirs to pros- 
perity. A "provisional government'' was arranged; yet, more 
lionest than the secession revolutionists of 1860-61, the dele- 
gates did not presume to instate it until the people actually 
had accepted it through a second Convention. Public officers 
were directed to retain all public monies then in their keeping 
until the succeeding Convention could assume the responsibil- 
ity of their disposal in the "fair and equitable settlement" 
which it was proposed to make with the old State. 

Thus matters rested in the District, until the meeting, two 
months later, of the second Convention. The sober second 
thought had begun to work ; while the State, troubled at the 
schism, hastened to correct its ways by legislating backward. 
The act of cession to the Confederation was repealed ; the west- 
ern counties were made into an exclusive judicial district and 
granted an assistant judge and attorney- general for the State 
Superior Court ; while Sevier, the gallant but turbulent patri- 
ot, was commissioned a Brigadier-General ! These signs of 
returning sense on the part of the old State authorities and 
lawgivers, disarmed the seceders of their professed " wrongs," 



SEVIER APPOINTED GOVERNOR. 157 

leaying tliem witliout an excuse for furtlier insurrection. Se- 
vier was reconciled. 

But, not so with the people. They had been excited with 
the blandishments of secession and were bound to taste of the 
forbidden fruit. They set aside the conservatives, or submis- 
sionists, and inaugurated the "provisional" Government. It 
at once proclaimed an election for members of a General As- 
sembly, and otherwise legislated for the "permanent" order of 
things. With true revolutionary precipitation an election for 
the Assembly was held at once ; its members elect met at 
Jonesborough, early in 1785, opening the " Senate" and " House 
of Commons" with due form. The Assembly's first act was 
the appointment of Sevier as provisional Governor, the insta- 
tion of provisional Courts and the inauguration of all neces- 
sary machinery of State. Their new commonwealth was then 
christened "The State of Franklin." This done, Sevier, by 
act of the Assembly, duly, and in official form, informed Mar- 
tin, Governor of North Carolina, of the action of the western 
counties, whose people "no longer considered themselves un- 
der the sovereignty and jurisdiction of the parent State." Ee- 
ceiving this quit-notice Governor Martin immediately convened 
his Council (April 22d, 1785). After three days' solemn de- 
liberation the Legislature was convoked to meet at Newbern, 
June 1st, in extraordinary session, and the proclamation (quot- 
ed at the opening of our paper) was issued — not published. It 
was circulated in manuscript form to give it the force of a spe- 
cial and personal consideration by the people of the three coun- 
ties, by whom it was generally read and thoroughly canvassed. 
It began to work among the more reflecting, and again excited 
the " submissionists" to life. But Sevier — " in for a penny in 
for a pound" — resolved to throw down the gauntlet of defiance. 
This he did in a manifesto to the people, encouraging them to 
loyalty to the new State, and threatening all malcontents with 
his dire displeasure. To this manifesto the new Governor of 
North Carolina, Caswell, rejoined, repeating his purpose to en- 
force the just authority of the State. 

But, notwithstanding all this show of war, the people of the 
old State apparently gave the matter little heed. Even the 
20 



158 THE STATE OF FEANKLIN EMEUTE. 

Legislature summoned to meet at Newbern forgot to come to- 
gether ; and, generally, the affair was treated as a joke. Profit- 
ing by this reception, the secessionists proceeded to strengthen, 
their movement and their Government, by meeting in Conven- 
tion at Greenville, Nov. 14th, 1785, to adopt a permanent Con- 
stitution.' After a noisy and not particularly harmonious 
' comparison of views' between the men of property and those 
owning only a horse, hunting-shirt and rifle, the Convention 
adopted the North Carolina Constitution, with slight modifica- 
tions. This organic law was at once put in motion in seven 
counties so far as legislation went, though the want of money, 
of taxable products, of commercial communication with the 
North and East, all contributed to render the new State literal- 
ly a state of suspense. The need for money, however, was 
obviated in a novel manner. By law the price of beaver, ot- 
ter, mink, deer and other skins — of whisky, bacon, maple sugar 
and homespun linen — was fixed ; and these commodities, there- 
after, took the place of money— became the "circulating me- 
dium." It was provided that "all salaries and allowances 
hereby made shall be paid by any treasurer, sheriff" or collector 
of public taxes to any person entitled to the same — to be paid 
in specific articles (referring to skins, &c.) as collected and at 
the rates allowed by the State for the same," &c. Lossing ob- 
serves : "" 

" It has been jocularly declared that the salaries of the Governor, Of- 
ficers of State and Judges were paid in fox skins, and those of sheriffs, 
constables and inferior oflBcers in mink skins. This currency was ac- 
cepted as good, and no one thought of fluctuation or depreciation until 
confidence in it was shaken by daring counterfeiters. Opossom skins 
were almost worthless, while raccoon skins were valued at one shilling 
and six-pence. The counterfeiters sewed raccoons' tails upon oppossum 
skins, i^assed the mongrel as genuine " coous," and thus brought dis- 
credit upon the whole currency of Franklin." 

All this procedure did not pass, however, unnoticed by the 
North Carolina authorities. The Legislature convened in reg- 

* Greenville has since become classic ground in the cause of the Union. It was 
there that the great Convention of Unionists was held in June, 1861, to protest 
against secession and treason. 

• See article "Early Secessionists" in Harper's Magazine for March, 1862. 



THE CONFLICT OF PAETIES. 159 

ular session in the fall of 1785, pursued a very conciliatory 
course toward the disaffected counties. An act was passed 
granting amnesty and oblivion for all the past providing the 
people returned to their allegiance and disavowed the Sevier 
government. They were authorised to vote for representatives 
in the State Assembly, while judges were appointed for the 
courts. This act of clemency again gave strength to the old 
State party, and at once created a clear issue. Sevier was firm 
and his partisans were in the majority ; but the opposition 
numbered some of the staunchest men in the District. Led 
by Colonel John Tipton the anti-Secessionists soon stood forth 
and boldly refused all recognition of the revolutionary Gov- 
ernor and Government. Party lines were drawn and personal 
feuds followed. Sevier denounced Tipton while Tipton de- 
nounced Sevier, Tipton stood for an election to the North 
Carolina Senate and others stood for the Lower House ; j udgea 
were appointed under the amnesty act, and the counties soon 
witnessed the extraordinary spectacle of two systems inaugu- 
rated for their government. The State of Franklin Assembly 
legislated, its courts decreed, and its bailiffs collected taxes: 
the State of North Carolina did the same. This of course 
quickly created a conflict. During 1786 the entire District, 
and particularly Washington county, was the scene of much 
excitement, which, at times, culminated in violence. The old 
State courts established their sessions for Washington county 
at Buffalo, within ten miles of Jonesborough. Colonel Tipton, 
with a number of his partisans, made a descent on the county 
court there in session, seized papers and ejected judge and ju- 
rors. Sevier immediately did the same thing for the court at 
Buffalo. The two leaders finally met, and from words descend- 
ed to blows. A regular hand to hand fight followed, in which 
large numbers participated : the submissionists were beaten 
and had to retire. 

Such a state of affairs could not long endure. Sevier either 
had to abdicate or obtain the aid of arms to enforce his autho- 
rity. This latter he sought to effect. He applied first to the 
sage, Benjamin Franklin, for advice, but received not a word. 
He sought an alliance with Georgia, with no success. He par- 



160 THE STATE OF FRANKLIN EMEUTE. 

lej^ed with tlie counties in South Western Virginia, whose 
secession schemes Patrick Henry had nij^ped in the bud by a 
rigid show of authority, but not a word of comfort could he 
extort in return. He finally appointed Commissioners to 
" treat" with the State authorities for a separation ; but they 
were not recognised at Newburn. A delegate had, previously, 
been appointed to the Continental Congress, but Congress knew 
no "State of Franklin," and gave the delegate no admittance. 
Thus rebuffed Sevier did not despair. He summoned the 
militia to his aid. His Assembly fully empowered him to act 
It passed laws imposing severe penalties upon any who should 
presume to act, within the State of Franklin, under the authori- 
ty of the State of North Carolina. This was in conformity with 
Sevier's expressed resolve made to Governor Caswell, upon 
the return of the Commissioners sent to treat for separation. 
He then wrote : 

"I had the fullest hopes and confidence that that body would have 
either agreed to the separation on honorable principles and stip- 
ulations, or otherwise have endeavored to have reunited us upon 
such terms as might have been lasting and friendly ; but I find 
myself and the country entirely deceived ; and if your Assembly have 
thought their measures would answer such an end, they are greatly mis- 
taken. * * We shall continue to act as independent, and would 
rather suffer death in all its various and frightful shapes than conform 
to anything that is disgraceful." 

Caswell's reply was admirable. It was highly conciliatory 
and conveyed the assurance that, in proper season and under 
favorable auspices, a new State would be formed out of the 
territory west of the Alleghanies. He therefore begged the 
people to forbear, and await the issue of events as good and 
orderly citizens. This note was the severest blow that then 
could have been inflicted : it drove from Sevier's support many 
of his partisans, leaving him but a minority. The old State 
party grew, thence, rapidly. It elected members to the North 
Carolina Assembly and refused to countenance the election of 
members to the insurgent Legislature. In consequence, elec- 
tions were not held in several districts, and, when the showing 
of strength was finally made, it was ascertained that Sevier 



SEIZURE OF Sevier's slates. 161 

really had but two out of the seven counties of the new State 
with him. 

This compelled the Governor to seek for terms of accommo- 
dation consistent with a retreat without dishonor. He there- 
fore solicited the Governor of Georgia to "mediate" for a set- 
tlement between the old State and the new — an office which 
the Georgian refused to accept. Sevier then dispatched a sec- 
ond commission to Newbern to treat with the Governor, but 
Caswell would give them no recognition as commissioners, 
though he treated them well as citizens. The Governor of 
North Carolina seemed willing to let events take their course, 
clearly foreseeing that the people themselves would rectify 
their errors. He acted wisely, for the last Sevier Legislature 
me tin September, 1787. Failing to elect a State Council, it 
hovered on the verge of dissolution for a few weeks, hoping to 
see the way clear for an honorable surrender of their delegated 
authority ; but, finally expired of mere inanition. Governor 
Sevier alone remained. He did not surrender his authority, 
nor yet did he offer opposition to the rapid displacement of his 
ofl&cials by the old State party, and the authorities. He kept 
the field, however, evidently too proud and obstinate to give 
over to his enemies. Colonel Tipton, resolving to bring mat- 
ters to a crisis and thus to get rid of the Governor, concocted 
the seizure of Sevier's negroes. They were taken on liis farm 
on the ISTolachuky river and borne by the Sheriff of Washing- 
ton county to Tipton's farm on the Watauga river. Sevier and 
his friends were aroused to a state of frenzy. They gathered 
to the number of one hundred and fifty and proceeded to Tip- 
ton's house, which was surrounded and an order made for its 
surrender. But fifteen men were with Tipton, yet he replied 
defiantly to the summons. Sevier then sent in to him a writ- 
ten demand, as Governor of the State of Franklin, for his un- 
conditional surrender. This document Tipton dispatched to 
Colonel Maxwell, in an adjoining county, begging the Colonel 
to come to his aid Maxwell replied by immediately gathering 
a large body of partizans, with whom he fell upon Sevier's 
men and a severe fight ensued. Two men were mortally 
wounded, and Sevier's two sons were taken prisoners. Tipton 



162 THE STATE OF FRANKLIN EMEUTE. 

resolved to hang tbem at once, and was only dissuaded by the 
earnest interposition of friends. Sevier's party suffered utter 
defeat, and the Governor became a kind of exile amid his own 
people. His restless spirit kept all in a ferment, until, finally 
(in July, 1789) the Governor of North Carolina issued an or- 
der for his arrest, charging him with being guilty of high trea- 
son. This order was issued at a moment when Sevier was on 
the frontier protecting the settlers against the Indians. He 
had gathered a strong body of armed men and proceeded to- 
ward the Creek country, but it was surmised that the chastise- 
ment of Indians was only a cover for his real design, to secure 
a powerful band of confederates and with them to co-operate 
with Miro, Spanish Governor of Louisiana, and his agent, 
General James Wilkinson, in transferring the country west of 
the Alleghanies to the Spanish rule. Evidence which after- 
wards transpired, proved that Sevier had really contemplated 
such a transfer as a last resort in resistance of the power of 
North Carolina.' 

Sevier was secured, by the aid of Tipton, and borne in irons 

1 The Spaniards themselves had conceited a plan for dismembering the Union. 
In this project General James Wilkinson became involved — the same individual 
who acted the part of informer against and betrayer of Aaron Burr, in 1806-7. To 
his complicity in the scheme for transferring Kentucky to the Spanish domination 
we devote one paper of this volume. Sevier's complicity is also established. On 
the 12th of Sept., 1788, he wrote to Gardequi, Spanish Minister to the United States, 
informing him that the inhabitants of Franklin were unanimous in their vehement 
desire to form an alliance and treaty of commerce with Spain, and to put themselves 
under her protection. He therefore begged for ammunition, money, and any other 
assistance which Miro, Governor of Louisiana, would bestow, to aid in the con- 
templated separation from North Carolina, pledging the faith of the State of 
Franklin for the payment of whatever sums Spain might advance, and whatever 
expenses she might incur in an enterprise which would secure to her such durable 
and important results. He said in conclusion : 

" Before concluding this communication it is necessary that I should mention 
that there cannot be a moment more opportune than the present, to carry our 
plan into execution. North Carolina has refused to accept the new Constitution 
proposed for the Confederacy, and therefore a considerable time will elapse be- 
fore ghe becomes a member of the Union if that event ever happen." 

This extract shows how deeply Sevier plotted. He falsified in saying that the 
people of Franklin were unanimous in their wish to form an alliance with Spain : 
the peopk really knew nothing of his ambitious, or rather of Ms desperate designs, 
to sustain his course. We shall advert to this phase'of Sevier's treason in a suc- 
ceeding paper: See " The Conspiracy of General James Wilkinson." 



/ 



THE END OF THE TEOUBLES. 163 

to tlie jail at Jonesboroiigli. Fearing a rescue he was con- 
veyed secretly over the mountains to Morgantown, in Burke 
county. This deportation aroused the mountain men and his 
old confederates in arms, and they were soon on his track in 
large numbers, resolved upon a rescue. The trial quickly fol- 
lowed. Sevier was arraigned for high treason and everything 
promised his conviction. But his partisans were there in the 
great crowd. One friend, Major Evans, had brought with him 
the fallen Governor's fleetest mare and stood with her before 
the Court House door. Another friend named Cozby entered 
the Court room and confronted the judges. Sevier evidently 
knew the programme. " Are you done with this man ? " said 
the fearless Cozby, in a stentorian voice, addressing the judges. 
A scene of tumult followed, and ere a minute Sevier was 
astride of his fleet mare, flying like a whirlwind toward the 
mountains. He escaped, but only to be outlawed and hunted. 
But his treason was not such as to deprive him of sympathy. 
Out of his persecutions sprang a spirit which sustained him 
even in the face of persecution. His old friends rallied in 
force : his enemies were not vengeful, and he was elected to 
the North Carolina Legislature by an overwhelming vote ! In 
November, 1789, he was in Fayetteville to attend the Assem- 
bly session. No feeling prevailed against him ; on the con- 
trary Governor and Assembly seemed eager to reenstate him 
to citizenship and honor ! A special act restored him to a citi- 
zen's rights and soon after he was clothed with the old com- 
mission of Brigadier-General. The Legislature also passed an 
act to validate all marriages contracted and letters of adminis- 
tration issued under the State authority of the insurgent ad- 
ministration. 

Such was the finale of the Franklin State emeute — at once 
an insurrection and a revolution, though amounting to little 
more than the fabled tempest in the teapot. Sevier was after- 
wards honored with offices of trust and served his constituency 
with satisfaction. He was elected in 1790 to Congress — having 
no competitor, and took his seat as the first representative 
from the west of the Alleghanies. Having again been ceded 
by North Carolina to the General Government (1790) th» 



164 THE STATE OF FRANKLIN EMEUTE. 

magnificent domain west of tliat State to the Mississippi river, 
was erected into a territory. A Convention called at Knox- 
ville, in 1796, formed a State Constitution and General Sevier 
was elected its first Executive. The State of Tennessee was 
admitted into the Union June, 1796. For two terms Se- 
vier was the chosen Governor of the State — revered and 
honored by all men. In 1811 he was returned to Congress 
from the Knoxville district, and, during the war of 1812-15, 
served on the House Committee on Military Affairs. In 1815 
President Madison named him Commissioner to run the boun- 
dary lines of territory ceded by the Creek Indians to the Gene- 
ral Government In the performance of that duty he was 
seized with a fever and died in September. The people of 
Tennessee, mindful of his name and deeds, erected a monu- 
ment to his memory in the cemetery at Nashville. The monu- 
ment does not allude to his contemplated treason against his 
country in endeavoring to pass his " State" over to the Spanish 
King. 



SHAYS' REBELLION. 



Colonel Hiimphreys writing to General Wasliingtou un- 
der date of November 1st, 1786, said: 

" The trouble in Massachusetts still continue. Government is pros- 
trated in the dust, and it is much to be feared that there is not energy 
enough in the State to re-establish the civil powers. The leaders of tlie 
mob, whose fortunes and measures are desperate, are strengthening 
themselves daily, and it is expected that they will soon take possession 
of the Continental magazine at Sjiringfield, in which there are from ten 
to fifteen thousand stand of arms in excellent order. 

" A general want of compliance with the requisitions of Congress for 
money seems to jjrognosticate that we are rapidly approaching a crisis. 
Congress, I am told, are seriously alarmed and hardly know which way 
to turn or what to expect. Indeed, my dear General, nothing but a 
good Providence can extricate us from the present condition." 

General Knox, then Secretary of War, visiting Massachu- 
setts to look after the threatened revolution, thus wrote of the 
malcontents : 

" Their creed is that the property of the United States has been pro- 
tected from the confiscation of Britain by the joint exertions of all and 
therefore ought to be the common property of all, and he that attempts 
opposition to this creed is an enemy to equity and justice, and ought to 
be swept off the face of the earth. / * * * They are determined to 
annihilate all debts, j^ublic and jirivate, and have agrarian laws, which 
are easily effected by the means of unfunded paper which shall be a 
tender in all cases whatever," 

The achievement of independence did not bring with it so- 
cial and political peace. The throes of a revolution were felt 
in tremors through all the States. Society was ill at ease. 
Public confidence in the stability of affairs was wanting. State 
animosities and jealousies became apparent, threatening future 
relations. Ambitious men intrigued for power and turbulent 
21 



i66 shays' rebellion. 

men defied authority. It was a season of great agitation, ful? 
of speculation and suspicion even among the most patriotic. 
It was evident to the observant that a great change was im- 
pending: the country either must drift into anarchy or a more 
solid and efficient government must be evolved./ Still, the men 
whose judgment and devotion had brought the country safely 
through the War for Independence struggled to maintain theii 
Government. The heart of those well known in the councils 
and the field was right ; all wished for solidarity of govern- 
ment and labored to accomplish that close union which alone, 
by suppressing the vicious spirit of State supremacy, could 
give the whole country one government — render the whole 
people one nation, and the nation one power. ' None were more 
earnest to accomplis' '.\, . conbolidation than Washington. 
His calm judgment clearly foresaw disaster, disintegration and 
civil commotion in the near future. To James Warren he 
wrote : 

" The Confederation appears to me to be little more than a shadow 
without the substance, and Congress a nugatory body ; their ordinances 
being little attended to. To me, it is a solecism in politics, indeed it is 
one of the most extraordinary things in nature that we should confede- 
rate as a nation, and yet be afraid to give the rulers of that nation (who 
are creatures of our own making, appointed for a limited and short du- 
ration, and who are amenable for every action and may be recalled at 
any moment, and are subject to all the evils which they may be instru- 
mental in producing) sufficient powers to order and direct the affairs of 
the same. By such policy as this the wheels of government are clogged, 
and our brightest prospects, and that high expectation which was en- 
tertained for us by the wondering world, are turned into astonishment ; 
and from the high ground on which we stood, we are descending into 
the vale of confusion and darkness." 

To another he said : 

" I have ever been a friend to adequate powers in Congress, without 
which it is evident to me we never shall establish a national character, 
or be considered as on a respectable footing by the powers of Europe. 
"We are either a united people under one head and for Federal purjDoses, 
or we are thirteen independent sovereignties, eternally counteracting 
each other. If the former, whatever such a majority of the States as the 
Constitution points out, conceives to be for the benefit of the whole, 
eliould, in my humble opinion, be submitted to by the minority. I can 
foresee no evil greater than disunion ; than those unreasonable ^calouaiGS 



WASHINGTON- ON "STJiTE RIGHTS." 167 

(I say unreasonable because I would have a proper jealousy always 
awake, and the United States on the watch to prevent individual States 
from infracting the Constitution with impunity) which are continually 
poisoning our minds and filling them with imaginary evils for the pre- 
vention of real ones," 

In reply to a very despondent letter from Judge Jay, then 
Secretary of Foreign Affairs, we quote : 

" "We have errors to correct. "We have probably had too good an 
opinion of human nature in forming our Confederation. Experience 
has taught us that men will not adopt aud carry into execution meas- 
ures the best calculated for their own good, without the intervention of 
coercive power. I do not conceive we can exist long as a nation, with- 
out lodging, somewhere, a power which will pervade the whole Union 
in as energetic a manner, as the authority of the State Governments ex- 
tends over the several States. To be fearful of investing Congress, con- 
stituted as that body is, with ample authorities for National purposes, 
appears to me the very climax of popular absurdity and madness. Could 
Congress exert them for the detriment of the people, without injuring 
themselves in an equal or greater jDroportion ? Are not their interest? 
inseparably connected with those of their constituents ? By the rotation 
of appointments must they not mingle frequently with the mass of the 
citizens ? Is it not rather to be apprehended, if they were not possessed 
of the powers before described, that the individual members would be 
induced to use them, on many occasions, very timidly and inefficacious- 
ly, for fear of losing their popularity and future election ? "We must 
take human nature as we find it ; perfection falls not to the share of 
mortals. 

" "What then is to be done ? things cannot go on in the same strain 
forever. It is much to be feared, as you observe, that the better kind 
of people, being disgusted with these circumstances, will have theii 
minds prepared for any revolution whatever. "We are apt to run from 
one extreme to another. * * * I am told that even respectable 
characters speak of a monarchical form of government without horror. 
From thinking i^roceeds speaking, thence acting is often but a single 
step. But how irrevocable and tremendous ! "What a triumph for our 
enemies to verify their predictions ! "What a triumph for the advocates 
of despotism to find that we are incapable of governing ourselves, and 
that systems, founded on the basis of equal liberty, are merely ideal and 
fallacious ! "Would to God that wise measures may be taken in time to 
avert the consequences we have but too much reason to apprehend." 

These views so wise then are not without significance now, 
when that detested and truly anarchial principle of "State 
rights" is again made the rallying cry of demagogues aud as- 



168 shays' rebellion. 

pirants to office. The people should read "Washington's views 
of government, should understand just what " State rights" 
mean, should see the future as it would be under a system 
where each State or district in a State, was a law unto itself, 
before committing themselves to the dangerous principles 
which are the germ of secession and revolution. Let 
them read, in the story of Shay's rebellion, just what must fol- 
low upon individual attempts to override or suppress laws en- 
acted for the good of the whole. 

The debt, at the close of the War for Independence, con- 
tracted by Congress in the prosecution of the war was seventy 
millions of dollars — a sum at that date equivalent to a debt of 
ten thousand millions in 1860. The debt of Massachusetts 
alone was five millions ; that of other States, if not proportion- 
ately gi'eat, was very heavy. That old New England Sta.te 
had been first in the field ; had furnished more men for the 
war than Virginia — then the first in population, wealth and 
political influence ; had more ably and efficiently sustained 
Congress than Virginia or New York by contributions, loans 
and taxes, and when the war was over she stood nobly forth, 
even with her tremendous burthen of debt, to sustain the credit 
of the common country. Governor James Bowdoin, the sturdy 
patriot and unflinching man of integrity, urged the Legislature 
to meet the urgent appeals of Congress for aid by assuming 
Massachusetts' share of the sum required in 1786 to meet the 
public debt — one million and a half of dollars ! ' This act of 
assumption was voluntary, for in Congress existed no power 
to enforce its behests. The Legislature, however, was not of 
the Governor's mind entirely. It represented, to no small de- 
gree, the turbulent element seething and bubbling under the 
surface of affairs, and threatening at any moment to break 
forth in an eruption of violence. The desire to be relieved of 
taxation ; to stay the collection of debts ; to make money 
plenty by State emissions of paper ; to enact laws discrimi- 
nating against the products or revenues of other States, found 
embodiment in representatives, who gave the insurrectionary 
portion «f the people encouragement by catering to their law- 
lessness Still, this class was not in the ascendant, most for- 



SEDITIOUS SPIRIT MANIFEST. 169 

tunately for the whole country ; and Governor Bowdoin, hav- 
ing succeeded in his wish to sustain the calls of Congress and 
in suppressing the vicious paper money scheme, adjourned the 
Legislature from July, 1786 to January, 1787. 

Hamilton in his " History of the Kepublic," says : " The 
firmness of the Legislature put in motion every active and tur- 
bulent spirit. Combinations were formed entertaining despe- 
rate designs, and conventious of delegates from extensive dis- 
tricts of the State were held which adopted the most violent 
resolutions, censuring every measure that had been taken to 
fulfil the public engagements ; declaring open hostility to the 
ministers of justice ; calling for an abolition of all existing 
contracts ; claiming an equal distribution of property ; and, at 
the same time professing that their proceedings were Constitu- 
tional ! " These turbulent assemblages, indeed, became so fre- 
quent and so violent during August and September that Grov- 
crnor Bowdoin called an extra session of the Legislature to 
consider the alleged grievances and to take steps for suppress- 
ing the insurrectionary spirit. | The remonstrances, petitions, 
i.nanifestoes, citations and resolutions sent in were numerous 
enough to assure the authorities that, whatever the justice of 
tlieir cause, the malcontents were numerous enough to give 
■ rouble if not appeased. / Their complaints were as manifold 
fii the petitions were numerous. The heavy poll tax; the ex- 
cise ; costs of court proceedings ; high valuation of farm lands ; 
ilio assumption of National obligations ; the riches of lawyers ; 
the high salaries paid public of&ce holders — all came in for an 
almost general denunciation ; while many of the more signifi- 
cant resolutions of the "popular conventions" aimed a blow at 
the existence of the Senate, of Courts of Common Pleas, of 
several provisions of the State Constitution — all of which, it 
was claimed were- useless and burthensome and should be 
abolished. It was of these revolutionary demands that Hum- 
phrey and Knox wrQte. The sch-eme of agrarian commonalty 
of property, adverted to by Knox, was the growth of a later 
inonth, when the movement passed out of the hands of dema- 
gogues into the hands of the mobs they had called into ex- 
istence. 



170 shays' REBELLIOIS. 

A convention held late in July at Hatfield, in Hampslnre 
county, comprised delegates from about fifty towns./ This im- 
portant assembly initiated the violence which soon after took 
form in the suppression of the Court-sittings at Northampton. 
It gave the insurrection the form of a popular movement for 
correcting grievances and disabilities unnecessarily imposed by 
law-givers./ Acting under its declarations other conventions 
followed ; while the mob, as stated, acted out the spirit of their 
resolves by suppressing the Northampton Court. These sedi- 
tious movements and act induced Bowdoin to issue a procla- 
mation forbidding such assemblages, and calling upon all good 
citizens to sustain the constituted authorities in suppressing 
such combinations. This really temperate manifesto from the 
Chief Magistrate only fired the lawless to farther seditious 
acts. Their strength grew daily, particularly in the counties 
of Worcester, Berkshire, Middlesex and Bristol, and, imitating 
the example of the Hampshire ruffians, the Worcester insur- 
rectionists, on the 1st of September, suppressed the sittings of 
their County Court. They then concerted a movement upon 
Springfield to suppress the sittings of the Supreme Court, then 
about to be held there. This high handed procedure was un- 
der the guidance of one Daniel Shays, late a Captain in the 
Continental army — a resolute, unscrupulous, and ambitious 
person, who, unquestionably sought to upturn the whole order 
of society. 

Bowdoin ordered out the militia to protect the Supreme 
Court from interruption; and Major-General Shepard, gather- 
ing six hundred reliable men, surrounded the Court House for 
its protection. Shays appeared on the ground, with a force 
much heavier than that of the militia men, but did not dare to 
challenge the ordeal of blood ready for him./ He essayed to 
communicate with the judges, but his messages were given no 
notice. Three days of the session were thus passed ; but, on 
the morning of the fourth, apprehending a general colhsion, 
the Court adjourned, and Shays' horde of ruffians dispersed, 
much to the relief of the terrified people whom they had 
shamelessly robbed during their three days' stay. 

A similar proceeding was arranged by the insurrectionary 



LEGISLATIVE ACTION. 171 

leader to suppress the Bristol county Court, overwhicli Major- 
General Cobb presided as Chief Justice. Bowdoin authorised 
Cobb to call out his forces, which he did. /' At the opening of 
the Court at Taunton, the insurgents appeared in great force, 
but Cobb's demeanor, and the determination of his troops, 
awed the disorganizers. The terror inspired among the towns- 
people at the attitude of affairs induced Cobb to adjourn the 
sitting, /a few days after the Supreme Court met at the same 
place. Its sittings were to have" been broken up, but Cobb 
with his ni'^itia kept the precincts of the bench sacred from in- 
trusion. The Middlesex County Court was less fortunate. It 
was not protected by the militia and its sittings were, in con- 
sequence, broken up. 

It was these acts that induced the reconvention of the 
Legislature, which assembled late in September to take action 
in the premises — to redress grievances, and to clothe the Gov- 
ernor with full power to meet the crisis. / Bowdoin laid before 
the Legislators a full history of the incendiary proceedings and 
asked to be empowered to act as the case seemed to demand- 
The Legislature, while it did so empower him and pledge its 
entire power and resources to sustain the majesty of the law, 
acted upon the petitions of the insurrectionists by passing sev- 
eral acts of a specific nature, calculated to appease the clamors 
of the mob. This deference to clamor, however, was not ac- 
companied by any expression of mercy or leniency toward 
those in arms. The privileges of the habeas corpus were sus- 
pended for a period of eight months, to secure the rigor of the 
law from interference and obstruction. ! An address was issu- 
ed, in which the people were reminded of their National as well 
as State obligations, and duty to the country, while they were 
enjoined to discourage all acts not consistent with law and 
order. 

But, the spirit of violence was not to be laid by the exor- 
cism of legislative edicts. Shays and his coadjutors labored 
zealously to fan the incendiary fires ; nor did they labor in 
vain. / Even during that session of the Legislature the insur- 
gents were moving and combining in a menacing manner. 
The sittings of the Supreme Court in Middlesex county had 



172 shays' REBELLION. 

to be protected during November ; a force was called out so 
strong as to keep the insurgents quiet. 

The commotion produced throughout the country by this 
state of affairs in Massachusetts may be inferred from Wash- 
ington's correspondence on the subject. Even before the ad- 
journment of the Legislature in December, after its six weeks' 
session, the insurrectionists became so evidently bent on revo- 
lution that Governor Bowdoin was forced to place the militia 
of the State on a war footing, f Whereupon Washington wrote : 

" What, gracious God ! is man, that there should be such inconsisten- 
cy and perfidiousness in his conduct. It was but the other daj^, that 
we were shedding our blood to obtain the Constitutions under which 
we now live ; Constitutions of our own choice and making; and now 
we are unsheathing the sword to overturn them. The thing is so unac- 
countable, that I hardly know how to realize it, or to persuade myself 
that I am not under the illusion of a dream." 

To the fears of Knox he replied : 

" I feel, my dear General Knox, infinitely more than I can exj^ress to 
you, for the disorders which have arisen in these States. Good God ! 
who, beside a tory, could have foreseen, or a Briton j^redicted them ? I 
do assure you that, even at this moment, when I reflect uj^on the pres- 
ent prospect of our affairs, it seems to me to be like the vision of a 
dream. * * * After what I have seen, or rather what I have heard, 
I shall be surjorised at nothing ; for, if three years since, any person had 
told me that there would have been such a formidable rebellion as ex- 
ists this day against the laws and Constitution of our own making, I 
should have'thought him a bedlamite, a fit subject for a mad-house." 

And to James Madison he addressed this powerful plea for 
unity and strength in the Central Government — a plea which 
we may commend to the consideration of every ' democrat' 
who sees in his dogma of State sovereignty a cure for all the 
evils which government is heir to : 

" How melancholy is the reflection that in so short a time we should 
have made such large strides toward fulfilling the i^redictious of our 
transatlantic foes ! ' Leave them to themselves, and their Government 
Avill soon dissolve.' Will not the wise and good strive hard to averk 
this evil ? Or will their supineness sufitr ignorance and the arts of self- 
interested and designing, disaflected and desperate characters, to inr 
volve this great country in wretchedness and contempt ? What strong- 
er evidence can be given of the want of energy in our Government than 
these disorders ? If there is not power in it to check them, what secit- 




WASHINGTON ON REBELLION. 173 

ty has a man for life, liberty, or property ? To you, I am sure I 
■need not add anght on the subject. The consequences of a lax or 
inefficient Government are too obvious to be dwelt upon. Thirteen 
sovereignties pulling against each other, and all tugging at the fed- 
eral head, will soon bring ruin on the whole; whereas, a liberal 
and energetic Constitution, well checked and well watched, to pre- 
vent encroachments, might restore us to that degree of resjiectability 
and consequence to which we had the fairest prospect of attaining." 

How he would treat insurrectionists we learn from his letter 
to Colonel Lee, then a member of Congress : 

"You talk, my good sir, of emiDloying iufluence to appease the 
present tumults in Massachusetts. I know not where that influence 
is to be found, or, if attainable, that it w'ould be a proper remedy 
for the disorders. Influence is not government. Let us have a govern- 
ment by which our lives, liberties and properties will be secured, or 
let us know the worst at once. There is a call for decision. ( Know 

r precisely what the insurgents aim at. If they have real grievances, 
redress them, if possible ; or acknowledge the justice of them, and 
your inability to do it at the mopient. If they have not, employ 
\the force of Government against them at once.j If this is inadequal^, 
all will be convinced that the superstructure is bad and wants sup- 
port. To delay one or other of these expedients is to exasperate on 
the one hand or to give confidence on the other. * * * j^g^ the 
reinS of Government then be braced and held with a steady hand, 
and every violation of the Constitution be reprehended. If defect- 
ive, let it be amended ; but not suffered to be trampled upon while 
it has an existence." 

The insurgents gathered, during December, in strong force, 
particularly in the western counties, where their meetings were 
violent in opposition to the Executive and Legislature. A 
general resolve was made to resist the enforcement of such 
laws as they, "the people," did not like. This wild and pre- 
cipitate rejection of all law was simply the result of their first 
professions of opposition to payment of debts, public and pri- 
vate. Once assuming the r^ight to nullify one law it was easy 
to repudiate all law. The Governor's call for the militia hast- 
ened the crisis. The insurgents were then to test their poM^er 
to cope with the Government. They gathered, under the gen- 
eral leadership of Shays, to meet the trial with a desperate re- 
solve not to succumb. The insurrection then took on the 

22 



174 shays' REBELLION. 

forms and accepted the immense responsibilities of a revolu- 
tion. 

Early in December a movement was concerted upon Cam- 
bridge, with the ultimate design of holding that place until 
terms were obtained of the Governor satisfactory to those in 
arms. The ostensible object of this movement was to obstruct 
the Court sitting, though it is surmised by many writers that 
the leaders really proposed to take Boston, to seize the public 
archives and to instal a provisional government. If such a 
coup d^eiat was meditated it failed miserably. Even its con- 
ception savored so strongly of folly as to be pronounced ab- 
surd. What could Shays and his friends hope to accomplish 
even by a suppression of the Court sittings at Cambridge, un- 
der the very shadow of the Capitol ? It must be confessed 
that they over-estimated their own strength or under estimated 
the spirit of loyalty which animated seven-eighths of the peo- 
ple of the State. '' It is presumed by some authorities that the 
c9nspirators, alarmed at the dead certainty of their destruction 
as soon as the militia were well in the field, conceived the idea 
of a march toward Boston to obtain terms of amnesty and con- 
cession by menacing the capital. This seems probable. 

But they mistook both the temper of the Governor and the 
power he could bring to bear on them. They gathered at 
Concord during December, where it was proposed to gather a 
host so formidable in numbers as to carry terror to all opposi- 
tion. The crowd did not assume the proportions designed. 
Many of those disaffected withdrew from the treasonable move- 
ment, and a want of concert in action paralj^zed the conduct 
of the force gathered, Bowdoin dispatched the Sheriff of Mid- 
dlesex county, with a strong posse comitatus, to the insurgent 
quarters and succeeded in arresting three of the mob leaders, 
who were soon immured in Boston jail. This unsuspected 
stroke somewhat disconcerted the insurgent programme, but 
only for a season. Shays led a large body of his men against 
Worcester, where the Court was in sitting. This he suppress- 
ed, while he billetted his vagabonds upon the terrified and 
unresisting people. They soon cleared the town of its provi- 
sions. Shays then revived his scheme for seizing Boston j 



ACTION OF GOVERNOR BOWDOIN. 175 

nnder pretence of releasing his three comrades, then in jail in the ' 
capital, he proposed at once to march into the city.) His pro- 
ject was received with favor by all his -adherents ; for a few 
days it seemed as if Boston was seriously in danger. But, 
Bowdoin was stirring. ^ The veteran General Lincoln, of Revo- 
lutionary fame, was placed in command of the militia sum- 
moned for the defense of the city. He soon made such dispo 
sitions of forces and guns as compelled Shays to retire frou. 
"Worcester to Eutland, /where he found quarters for his arm}- 
of rag-a-muf5ns in the old Continental barracks. Here starva- 
tion stared them in the face, and Shays was forced to action to 
save his force from immediate disbandment. He therefore 
marched upon Springfield, where the County Court was to 
open its sessions December 26th. The insurgents arrived there 
on the 25th, and at once warned the Judges against opening 
the session, taking possession of the Court House for their quar- 
ters. This, of course, prevented the sitting for that term. 
"^Bowdoin was resolved to use the full power of the State to 
end this insurrection. He therefore made a call for 4400 mili- 
tia, to serve thirty days. Two artillery companies, of good 
material, were put m requisition. General Lincoln assumed 
the field. Two thousand men were ordered to muster at Bos- 
ton ; the rest in other parts of the State ; and all were to move 
upon Shays at Springfield in concert, to prevent his escape. 
Bowdoin issued a proclamation characterised by kindness but 
firmly expressing his purpo^^e to compel a submission to the 
laws and constituted authorities. I 

These formidable preparations did not intimidate the insur- 
rectionary leader.) He prepared for resistance, and, by excit- 
ing appeals, as well as by the use of threats, gathered a very 
strong force around him. He appealed in a published address 
to his " suffering fellow citizens" to rally in defense of their 
rights, setting forth the wrongs for which they had obtained 
no redress. He then prepared to arm his rapidly increasing 
forces by a seizure of the Government arsenal at Springfield, 
where were stored about twelve thousand stand of arms in 
good order. This danger to the arsenal Bowdoin and the Con- 
tinental Government had foreseen, and had commissioned 



176 shays' rebellion. 

General Sliepard of tlie Hampshire district to gather the militia 
in its protection. There were soon over one thousand excel- 
lent troops in Springfield ready for his orders. The arsenal 
was then deemed safe, and the Court proposed to assume its 
session ; but Shaj^s, calling in his forces from the various ren- 
dezvous, prepared for an attack and capture of the arsenal be- 
fore Lincoln could arrive. { To this end he mustered full 
eighteen hundred fellows, most of them real desperadoes ; and 
made his combinations for assault on or before the 25th of Jan- 
uary, as Lincoln was then at Worcester, only fifty miles dis- 
tant. Shays marched upon Shepard, at four o'clock on the 
afternoon of the 25th, approaching in open column. The 
General sent out his flag of truce, warning Shays not to ap- 
proach, but it was not respected — the insurgents continuing to 
approach. A second warning was given by Shepard ; it also 
was received derisively. The artillery was then brought to 
bear on the approaching mob, and a blank cartridge fired. It 
had^no effect, except to extort a laugh and a shout of defiance. 
The guns were then shotted and fired. Three of Shays' men 
were killed and one wounded. This earnest of the reception 
that awaited them sent a thrill of dismay into the insurgent 
ranks ; and soon, despite all efibrts, they were on the run for 
Ludlow, ten miles away, through the deep snow. Shays, re- 
enforced by a fresh detachment under Luke Day, rallied 
enough, however, to make a second attempt upon the arsenal. 
Before he could arrange matters, Lincoln, by a forced march, 
reached Springfield with four regiments, artillery and a troop 
of cavalry. This saved the place, to the great relief of the 
alarmed inhabitants. 

Lincoln, determined to dissipate the entire insurgent 
army, marched a detachment over the Connecticut river — then 
firmly frozen— to West Springfield, whence the vagabonds of 
Day retreated in confusion to Northampton. Shepard moved, 
at the same time, direct up the river against Shays' own force, 
which retired to Amherst. In its vicinity and at Pelham the 
malcontents gathered in such force that it was not found prac- 
ticable to march against them during the inclemency of the 
weather, which was very rigorous *even for that region. Late 



ATTEMPT TO " C M P K M I SE." 177 

in January tlie State forces took up quarters at Iladley, from 
whence the old General addressed a last warning to the insur- 
rectionary leader, informing him that defiance to law was open 
rebellion which would surely be punished as high treason. To 
this Shays answered with apparent boldness, proposing a ces- 
sation of hostilities, an unconditional pardon for all engaged in 
the " controversy" and a hearing of the points at issue before 
the Legislature — terms which the General was not empowered 
to concede. '' The insurgents, assisted by a section of society 
which exists in every State— of those who, under the guise of 
"peace men," "compromisers," "conservatives," covertly use 
their influence to cover assaults upon the Government, or upon 
the order of communities — were encouraged to strengthen their 
opposition as the best means of securing a pardon and of com- 
pelling the Legislature to adopt laws favorable to the agrarian 
and loose desires of the mob. The armistice asked for by 
Shays was only to give him time for consolidating his force 
and to strengthen the movement by creating a formidable 
"peace party," upon whose influence he might count in secur- 
ing pardon for all. | This Lincoln comprehended, and he pur- 
posed to end the matter before it could gain much momentum 
or shield its abettors by raising up friends in their behalf ISTot 
only the State but the Continental Congress looked to him for 
safety, and he resolved to strike finishing blows to the danger- 
ous combination. 

The insurgents having moved to Petersham, late in January, 
there awaited the Legislature's action on a petition signed by 
Shays and other leaders of the rebellion, in which they ac- 
knowledged their mistake in taking up arms against the State 
in redresss of grievances which they desired to correct, and 
promised to lay down their arms if a guarantee of pardon to 
all were given. / Upon this no action was taken, though the 
peace men strove to call it up by every parliamentary strata- 
gem. / Bowdoin had adapted his means to ends and found the 
Legislature ready to sustain him in forcing the rebels to terms 
and in bringing the guilty leaders to trial. (' Steps were taken 
for strengthening the force in the field. But, before these re- 
enforcements reached him, Lincoln had struck the fatal blow 



178 shays' rebellion. 

wliicli really ended the " rebellion." He moved bj night from 
Hadley, upon Petersham, and, after a forced march of thirty 
miles through a heavy snow, with the cold at zero, reached 
the insurgent quarters early the next day, surprising the rebels 
completely, when they incontinently fled without firing a gun. 
Shays and other leading spirits made their escape. One hun- 
dred and fifty of his followers were secured by the State troops 
as prisoners. The " army" of Shays was broken, but the spirit 
of resistance to law was not entirely allayed, for it kept parts 
of the State in a ferment for several months thereafter, to the 
intense disgust and anger of all the better portion of the peo- 
ple. In Berkshire county the lawlessness of the mob continu- 
ed to such a degree that the better class of citizens formed a 
home guard to give safety to themselves and order to commu- 
nities. They acted with such determination as to break up 
the several insurrectionary bands which still retained their or- 
ganization in that section, inspired by the leaders and most 
guilty abettors of the rebellion, who had fled to New York, 
Vermont and New Hampshire, to escape arrest and trial for 
treason. 

Congress was then holding its session in New York, whither 
many of the insurgent leaders took refuge. On the 18th of 
February, 1787, General Schuyler, in the Senate, moved for a 
proclamation to issue for their apprehension. The alarm felt 
by Congress was great. None knew how quickly the fires of 
insurrection might kindle in other sections. The then incipi- 
ent Federal party — laboring for a stronger Government, a new 
Constitution and a more consolidated Union — seized the mo- 
ment to press their ideas, and to encourage the call for a Con- 
vention to propose the necessary changes in the organic struc- 
ture of the Union. It was a period of extreme excitement, 
particularly in all the New England and Middle States. The 
Government was on the verge of ruin : the " independence" of 
States and the power of faction threatened a condition of anar- 
chy. Shays' rebellion was but the eruption of a disease in the 
body politic which could not be reached by the outward appli- 
cation of restoratives or palliatives : the root of the disease 
must be stricken — the remedy must be a radical renovation of 



CLOSE OF THE EEBELLION. 179 

the system. How the hearts of patriots must hav,e suffered in 
those days of ahiiost hopeless suspense ! In the letters saved 
to us of the correspondence of "Washington, Adams, Madison, 
Hamilton, Jay, Livingston, Ames, Pinckney, &c., we see how 
those worthies struggled to stem the tide of disorganization 
that was fast drifting the Union toward a condition of vassal- 
age to the British crown which it had bled through a seven 
years' war to shake o& There were, thank God, of pure and 
far seeing minds enough to lead the wild elements into the 
only true way necessary to save the country. 

In this period it is inspiring to turn to the conduct of Mas- 
sachusetts. She stood forth as a model of courage, patriot- 
ism and clear sighted conception of the crisis. She not only 
suppressed the rebellion within her borders, but sustained the 
General Government in a gratifying manner. She lent her 
voice to the convention for the adoption of a new Constitution. 
She labored with her great heart and mind to perfect the 
Union and to strengthen a Nationality which only needed 
consolidation to make it one of the most powerful governments 
on the earth. Her record is indeed a noble one ; and if a very 
few of her citizens, at a later day, advocated the pernicious 
doctrines of nullification and secession, it may be imputed less 
to her want of patriotism than to her detestation of a line of 
policy calculated to injure the whole country. 

The " rebellion" was ended. Bowdoin made application 
to the Governors of adjoining States for the arrest of fugi- 
tive citizens harbored within their jurisdiction. /The LegislaA 
/ ture commanded special sessions of the Supreme Judicial Court 
,' to be held in the several disaffected counties for the trial of all 
! who had participated in the insurrection. Sheriffs were busy 
; in seizing and securing the rebels, aided, in several instances^' 
V by strong bodies of citizens. Three Commissioners were nam- 
ed to proceed to the several county seats for a revisal of the 
proceedings to be instituted against those under arrest. They 
used their authority to pardon over three hundred, who, it ap- 
peared, were simply the deceived tools of designing dema- 
gogues. Fourteen were turned over to the Courts, tried for 
high treason and sentenced to death. A considerable number 



180 shays' rebellion. 

(among them several justices of the peace) were tried for, and 
convicted of, seditious practices ; these were punished by fine 
and imprisonment. One member of the Legislature was tried 
for open opposition to the civil authorities. He was fined 
heavily and was made to sit upon the public gallows for a day. 
Of those convicted of high treason eight were pardoned by tbe 
Governor upon assurances of their contrition ; the other six 
were respited conditionally. Shays, escaping to New York 
State, was not discovered for several months. He never re- 
turned to Massachusetts, but settled at Sparta, Livingston coun- 
ty, New York, where he led a peaceful life and died in 1825, 
at the good age of eighty-five. 



CONSPIRACT OF GENERAL JAMES WILKINSON. 



General Artlinr St. Clair, in a letter to his old companion 
in arms, Major Dunn, dated Dec. 5th, 1788, said : 

"I am very much grieved that there are strong dispositions on the 
part of the peojjle of Kentucky to break off their connection with the 
United States, and that our friend Wilkinson is at the head of this 
affair. Such a consummation would involve the United States in the 
greatest difficulties, and would comi^letely ruin this country. Should 
there be any foundation for these rumors, for God's sake make use of 
your influence to detach Wilkinson from that party." 

Wilkinson, the party here referred to, in a secret dispatch to 
Miro, Spanish Governor of Louisiana, under date of February 
14th, 1789, wrote : 

" Herein inclosed you will find two Gazettes which contain all the 
proceedings of our last Convention. You will observe that the memo- 
rial to Congress was presented by me, and perhaps your first impression 
vdll be that of surprise at such a document having issued from the jjen 
of a good Spaniard. But, on further reflection, you will discover that 
my policy is to justify in the eye of the world our meditated separation 
from the rest of the Union, and quiet the apprehensions of some friends 
in the Atlantic States, the better to divide them, because, knowing how 
impossible it is that the United States should obtain what we aspire to, 
not only did I gratify my sentiments and inclinations, but I also framed 
my memorial in such a style as was best calculated to excite the passions 
of our people ; and convince them that Congress has neither the jjower 
nor the will to enforce their claims and pretensions. Thus havino- en- 
ergetically and publicly represented our rights and lucidly established 
our pretensions, if Congress does not support them with efficacy (which 
you know it cannot do, even if it had the inclination), not only will all 
the people ot Kentucky, but also the whole world, approve of our seek- 
ing protection from another quarter." 

To comprehend more fully the character of Wilkinson's in- 
23 



182 CONSPIEACY OF WILKINSON. 

trigue we may add to these two quotations another from Miro's 
dispatch to Madrid, dated April 11th, 1789 : 

" In the paragraph B, you will find an account of the bold act which 
General Wilkinson has ventured upon, in presenting his first memorial 
in a public convention. In so doing, he has so completely bound him- 
self, that, should he not be able to obtain the separation of Kentucky 
from the United States, it has become impossible for him to live in it, 
unless he has suppressed, which is possible, certain passages which 
might injure him. Nevertheless, on account of the ojjposition made by 
Marshall and Muter to Wilkinson's plan, the Convention determined 
that new memorials be presented to Virginia and to Congress, to obtain 
the independence o^ Kentucky, its admission into the Union, and the 
free navigation of the Mississippi." 

Spain came into possession of the Louisiana territory, as 
stated in the "Conspiracy of Pontiac," (page 94) by a secret 
Convention in 1762, She did not, however, take possession 
until 1779. An attempt to assume the government in 1766 
brought with it extreme excitement, which culminated, in 
1768, in an open insurrection, by which the colonists and old 
French residents entirely drove out the Spaniards. The arri- 
val of O'Eeilley in the same year with a strong force soon re- 
stored the Spanish authority. His reign of blood quickly sup- 
pressed all ideas of any further revolt ; and thenceforward, to 
1803, the country remained under the dominion of Spain. 
The territory, understood to be comprised in their domain, 
reached from St, Genevieve and St. Louis, to the Gulf — a vast, 
undefined region on the west of the Mississippi river, with 
some possible claims to territory on the east, low down, on the 
Gulf 

New Orleans, with a population in 1765 of 4960, Natchez 
1550, Mobile 746, St. Louis 897, were their principal towns, 
though the territorial census of 1765 gave a total population 
of 81,433. During the War of the Eevolution the Spanish 
Governor, Galvez, had made a glorious campaign against the 
British posts on the river and Gulf — an episode of that war too 
little known to the mass of readers. Baton Eouge, Natchez, 
Mobile, Pensacola, all were wrested from Great Britain by the 
gallant Spaniard. These conquests gave to his possessions 
territory east of Mississippi, It was a portion of these ac- 
qub'ed possessions which Georgia claimed, extending from 



THE SPANISH DOMINATION, 183 

Loftus' Heights, toward the north, for about three hundred 
miles. That State in 1785 sent Commissioners to New Orleans 
to reclaim possession — a demand which was referred to the 
authorities of the two Governments, Spain and the American 
Congi'ess, for adjudication. Aside from this claim there was 
no right of soil urged by the American Government, or any 
of the States, against the Spanish possessions of Louisiana. 

But the " manifest destiny" principle of aggrandisement be- 
gan to show itself at that early day. Hardly had the Ameri- 
can Revolution ended before the eyes of capitalists, adventur- 
ers and statesmen looked longingly down the Mississippi, while 
the tide of emigration began to pour, in one steady stream, 
into Kentucky, Western Pennsylvania, Western Virginia and 
Tennessee — all States watered by rivers whose outlet was the 
Mississippi. The commerce of all that vast region, drained by 
the Tennessee, Cumberland and the confluents of the Ohio, 
necessarily centered at New Orleans. No treaty stipulations 
having been entered into between Spain and the American 
Congress to regulate that trade great dissatisfaction soon pre- 
vailed. Every flat-boatman and trader who returned home to 
the North and East, after his long voyage, had his story to tell 
of impositions practiced upon hira by the New Orleans ofiicials. 
Schemes for the seizure of that post was freely canvassed dur- 
ing the years 1786-88.' 

The Spaniards, alive to the threatened danger of subversion, 
soon conceived a counter plot, which not only would break the 
ascendancy of the Federal Union to the West, but would per- 
petuate Spanish power. This plan was to erect Louisiana into 
a viceroyalty, similar to that of Mexico, and, by offering im- 
mense inducements to emigration, to fill up the territory with 
a hardy and reliable population, who, as planters and traders, 
would give order and solidity to the new power. Gayarre, in 
his " History of the Spanish Domination in Louisiana," says : 

"Well informed of the condition of things then existing, Governor 
Miro, in Louisiana, and the Spanish Minister, Gardoqui, at Philadel- 

• See Judge Martin's " History of Louisiana," vol. ii. page 101, for reference to 
five different schemes or propositions entertained by the Western men to obtain 
control of the Missiaaippi. 



184 CONSPIEACy OF WILKINSON. 

l>hia, were both inirsuing the same object, wMcb was — to draw to 
Louisiana as much of the Western population as could be induced to 
emigrate, and even to operate, if possible, a dismemberment of the Con- 
federacy, by the secession of Kentucky and of the other discontented 
districts from the rest of the United States. Both these Spanish func- 
tionaries were partners in the same game, and yet they were unwilling 
to communicate to each other the cards they had in hand. Each one 
was bent upon his own plan, and taking care to conceal it from the 
other ; each one had his own secret agents unknown to the colleague 
whom he ought to have called to his assistance. There was a want of 
concert, arising perhaps from jealousy, from the lack of confidence, from 
ambition, from the desire of engrossing all the praise and reward ii 
case of success, or from some other cause. Be it what it may, the con- 
sequence was, that the schemes of these two men frequently counteract- 
ed each other, and resulted in a series of measures which were at vari- 
ance and contradictory, and which seemed inexjilicable to him who had 
not the key to what was going on behind the curtain." 

General James Wilkinson here comes upon the historic stage- 
to act his part of Conspirator, spy and dissimulator. He had 
done honorable service in the War for Independence, as may 
be inferred from the tone of General St. Clair's letter, quoted 
at the opening of this paper ; but he had not obtained any 
distinctive position in that contest ; and, had he not come for- 
ward in his western intrigues with Governor Miro and with 
Aaron Burr, his fame would have passed into the common 
but honorable catalogue of the Eevolutionary fathers. He ap- 
pears to have been an ambitious and an unscrupulous man, 
gifted with rather unusual powers of dissimulation, but with 
less judgment than should belong to chai^acters who would 
emulate Talleyrand. In the history of his intrigues with Miro, 
to carry Kentucky over to the Spanish interest, he made, for 
several years, a liberal use of prophecies and promises ; he la- 
bored assiduously in a field of diplomacy in which few men 
would have discovered much fruit ; he conceived castles which 
proved to be less real than structures of air ; yet he found it 
possible to deceive Miro, to dupe the Spanish Minister, to con- 
ciliate the United States ; and, if his projects all failed, it was 
not from the lack of talent for trickery but rather from want 
of judgment in correctly apprehending men and circumstances. 

Wilkinson appeared in New Orleans, early in the year 17b7, 



THE PLOT DEVELOPED. 185 

as a trader— having ventured down the Mississippi from Ken- 
tucky with a flat-boat load of flour, tobacco, butter and bacon. 
The usual offensive tariif-customs levied upon all such ventures 
were remitted in his case, by Governor Miro, after a long in- 
terview. The supposition is that, having conceived the pro- 
ject for a large trade, he let Miro into his secret concerning 
the destiny of Kentucky, and together they then hatched the 
scheme which, in some of its aspects, recalls John Law's cele- 
brated " Mississippi Bubble," which was first based upon the 
trade and resources of this very same Louisiana territory. 
Having sold his cargo with gi'eat advantage to himself the ad- 
venturer devoted three months to "interviews" with Miro. 
Gayarrd says : " Many wondered at the intimacy which had 
grown up, during this time, between Miro and Wilkinson, and 
sly hints and insinuations were thrown out as to its nature and 
tendency." Butler, in his "History of Kentucky," gives us 
some inkling of the subjects canvassed by the two worthies. 
It transpired that Wilkinson had given his "views" in writing 
respecting the political interests of Spain and the inhabitants 
ofthe United States dwelling upon the Western waters. These 
views, written out at considerable length, were designed to 
show the good policy of opening trade with the North by lib- 
eral arrangements and an encouraging policy. He alluded to 
the surpassing richness of the regions watered by the rivers 
flowing to the South— assuming that the people had a natural 
right to the use of the river as a highway. One or two allu- 
sions were rather novel. Thus, as reported by Butler: "he 
describes the general abhorrence with which they (the western 
people) received the intelligence that Congress was about to 
sacrifice their dearest rights by ceding to Spain, for twenty 
years, the navigation of the Mississippi ; and represents it as a 
fact that they are on the point of separating themselves entire- 
ly from the Union on that account" He thereupon proceeded 
to show how easily it would be for the Americans and British, 
united, to wrest the Louisiana territory from Spain. This 
document was addressed to Governor Miro though really de- 
signed for the Spanish Minister, Valdez, having super\asion 
of foreign and colonial aF^irs. " But it leaked out," says Ga- 



186 CONSPIRACY OF WILKINSON. 

yarr^, " and passed current among those who pretended to be 
well informed, that Wilkinson had delivered to the Spanish 
Governor a memorial containing other representations which 
were kept from the public eye." What this other document 
was soon appeared. Gardoqui, in pursuance of his plans, dis- 
patched his agent, Pierre Wower d'Arges, to the Cumberland 
and Kentucky region to " invite" the people to emigrate to the 
Florida District of Lower Louisiana. The agent executed liis 
mission ; and, he being empowered to make most liberal grants 
of land, rights in slaves, free admission of farming implements, 
as well as to grant liberal commercial privileges, he succeeded 
in securing a number of American families, who proceeded to 
the South and became subjects of Spain. This movement on 
the part of the Spanish Minister to the American Confedera- 
tion, at once awoke all the jealousy of Miro, who saw in it 
danger to his own and Wilkinson's projects. What these pro- 
jects were had to come forth to the light. January 8th, 1788, 
the Governor wrote to Yaldez at some length to show that 
Gardoqui's operations must prove disastrous to the larger and 
more important enterprise of Wilkinson. " I fear that they 
may clase with Wilkinson's principal object," he said, and 
proceeded to demonstrate how important it would be to make 
the two act in concert. " I have been reflecting for many days 
whether it would not be proper to communicate to d'Arges 
Wilkinson's plans, and to Wilkinson the mission of d'Arges, 
in order to unite them and to dispose them to work in concert. 
But I dare not do so, becaiise d'Arges may consider that the 
gr-eat project of Wilkinson may destroy the merit of his own, 
and he may communicate them to some one who might cause 
Wilkinson to be arrested as a criminal, and also because Wil- 
kinson may take offence at another being admitted to partici- 
pate in confidential proceedings, upon which depend his life 
and honor, as he expresses himself in his memorial." ' 

" Confidential proceedings ! " There was then a secret me- 
morial. What was its purport ? We can infer from the fol- 
lowing words which occur in the Governor's protest to Valdez : 
" The delivering up of Kentucky into his Majesty'' s hands, which 
is the main object to ivhich Wilkinson has promised to devote him- 



THE PROCESS OF THE PLAN. 187 

adf entirely^ would forever constitute tliis jDrovince a rampart 
for the protection of New Spain." 

This revealed something of Wilkinson's plot. More evidence 
was soon forthcoming. In April Miro sent forward another 
dispatch announcing the arrival of letters from his coadjutor, 
from one of which he quoted as follows : 

"I have collected much Euroiaean and American news, and have made 
various interesting observations for our political designs. It would take 
a volums to contain all that I have to communicate to you. But I dis- 
patch this letter with such haste, and its fate is so uncertain, that I hope 
you will excuse me for not saying more until the arrival of my boats ; 
and, in the mean time, I pray you to content yourselves with this assu- 
rance : all my predictions are verifying themselves, and not a measui-e 
is taken on both sides of the moulitaius which does not conspire to fa- 
vor ours. I encountered great difficulties in crossing the mountains." 

This letter also contained a paragraph highly illustrative of 
the duplicity which was the ruling principle of Wilkinson's 
strategy. He wrote: 

" Considering that Gardoqui has spies all over the United States, I 
thought that, in order to prevent his suspicions, and divert his investi- 
gations from the quarter to which they might be directed, it was pru- 
dent on my part to write him a comi^limeutary letter, in which I broach- 
ed some ideas which may give rise to a corresijondeuce between us, and 
the result of which I shall communicate to you." 

On the 5th of May another letter was dispatched by Wil- 
kinson to his confederate in New Orleans, by the hand of Ma- 
jor Dunn — the of&cer to whom General St. Clair addressed the 
letter given at the beginning of this paper. We now learn 
fully of the process by which the plan was to be carried into 
execution. We shall see them thus : 

"Major Isaac Dunn, the bearer of this dispatch, and an old military 
companion of mine, came to settle in these parts during my absence. 
The reliance which I jout in his honor, his discretion and his talents, has 
induced me, after having sounded his dispositions with proper caution, 
to choose him as a fit auxiliary in the execution of our political designs, 
which he has embraced with cordiality. He will therefore present him- 
self in order to confer with you on those points which require more ex- 
amination, and to concert with you those measures which you may deem 
necessary to expedite our plan ; and, through him, I shall be able to 
receive the new instructions which you may deem expedient to send me. 
I have also chosen him to bring me back the product of the present car- 
go of my boats. For these reasons, permit me to recommend him as one 



188 CONSPIRACY OF "WILKINSON. 

wortby of your entire confidence, and as a safe and sagacious man, who 
is profoundly acquainted with the political state of the American Union, 
and with the circumstances of this section of the country. I desire that 
he be detained in Louisiana as little as possible. 

" On the first day of January of the next year, 1789, by mutual consent, 
this district will cease to be subjected to the jurisdiction of Virginia. 
It has been stipulated, it is true, as a necessary condition of our inde- 
pendence, that this territory be acknowledged an independent State by 
Congress, and be admitted as such into the Federal Union. But a Con- 
vention has already been called to form a Constitution of this section 
of the country, and I am persuaded that no action on the part of Con- 
gress will ever induce this people to abandon the plan which they have 
adopted, although I have recent intelligence that Congress will, beyond 
a doubt, recognize us as a Sovereign State. 

" The Convention of which I have spoken will meet in July, I will, 
in the mean time, inquire into the prevailing opinions, and shall be able 
to ascertain the extent of the influence of the members elected. When 
this is done, after having previously come to an understanding with two 
or three individuals capable of assisting me, I shall disclose so much 
of our great scheme as may appear opportune, according to circumstanc- 
es, and I have no doubt but that it will meet with a favorable reception ; 
because, although I have been communicative with no more than two 
individuals, I have sounded many, and wherever it has seemed ex^jedi- 
ent to me to make known your answer to my memorial, it has caused 
the keenest satisfaction. Colonel Alexander Leatt BuUit and Harry 
Innis, our attorney-general, are the only individuals to whom I have 
intrusted our views, and, in case of any mishap befalling me before their 
accomplishment, you may, in perfect security, address yourselves to 
these gentlemen, whose political designs agree entirely with yours. Thus, 
as soon as the new government shall be organized and adopted by the 
people, they will proceed to elect a governor, the members of the legis- 
lative body and other ofiicers, and I doubt not but that they will name 
a political agent with power to treat of the afiair in which we are en- 
gaged, and I think that all this will be done by the month of March 
next. In the meantime, I hope to receive your orders, which I will do 
my utmost to execute. 

" I do not anticipate any obstacle from Congress, because, under the 
present Federal compact, that body can neither dispose of men nor 
money, and the new government, should it establish itself, will have to 
encounter difiiculties which will keep it weak for three or four years, 
before the expiration of which I have good grounds to hope that we 
shall have completed our negotiations, and shall have become too 
strong to, be subjected by any force which may be sent against us. 
The only fears I have, proceed from the policy which may prevail 



SUSPICIONS OF THE GOVERNOR. 189 

in yonr Court. I am afraid of a change in the present ministry, and 
hi the administration of Louisiana, of the possibility of which event 
you are better judges than I can be, and I beg you to be explicit 
with me on the subject. * * * 

" I have applied to Mr. Clark, my agent in New Orleans, with re- 
gard to sending me merchandise by the way of the ^lississipjji. This 
is of the utmost importance for the accomplishment of our wishes, 
because the only tie which can preserve the connection of this coun- 
try with the Atlantic States is the necessity under which we are, to 
rely on them altogether for the supply of such articles as are not 
manufactured among us ; and when this people shall find out that 
they can proeure them more conveniently through this river, the 
dependent state in which they are will cease, and with it all mo- 
tives of connection with the other side of the Apalachian mountains. 
Our hopes will then be turned toward you, and all obstacles in the 
way of our negotiations will have been removed." 

This important document was farther illuminated by Miro's 
comments accompanying its remission to Spain. He said: 
" This Major confirms all of Wilkinson's assertions, and gives 
it out as certain, that, next year, after the meeting of the first 
assemblies in which Kentucky will act as an independent 
State, she will separate entirely from the Federal Union ; he 
further declares that he has come to that conclusion from hav- 
ing heard it expressed in various conversations among the 
most distinguished citizens of that State : that the direction of 
the current of the rivers which run in front of their dwelhngs 
points clearly to the power to which they ought to ally them- 
selves, but he declares that he is ignorant of the terms on 
which this alliance will be proposed. The said Brigadier- 
General, in a private letter addressed to me, adds that he flat- 
ters himself with the prospect of his being the delegate of his 
State to present to me the propositions offered by his country- 
men, and that he hopes to embrace me in April next." 

Miro begins to suspect his agent, at this stage of their pro- 
ceedings, it would appear, for he states that Wilkinson had 
borrowed three thousand dollars, which the cargo sent down 
by Major Dunn was to repay. The rest of the cargo was to 
pay for the tobacco, which he had bought on credit, and to 
give him money to "support himself without embarrassment" 
The Governor thereupon adds : " Although his candor, and 
24 



190 CONSPIRACY OF WILKINSON. 

tlie infomiation wliich I have sought from many who have 
known him well, seem to assure us that he is working in 
good earnest, yet I am aware that it may be possible that his 
intention is to enrich himself at our expense, by inflating us 
with hopes and promises which he knows to be vain." 

It would require a volume to trace their Conspiracy through 
all its tortuous ways. That it was a deeply laid plan of the 
Spanish Grovernment to break up the Union, important docu- 
ments which have lately come to light tend fully to prova 
Wilkinson was confidential operator, spy and agent of the 
Spaniards in Louisiana, while d'Arg^s received instructions 
direct from Madrid to do all in his power to procure the dis- 
memberment of the American Union.' Gardoqui gave powers 
of colonization to Colonel George Morgan, late of the Conti- 
nental army, who proposed to establish a large colony at some 
point below the mouth of the Ohio. This he succeeded in 
doing, founding the town of New Madrid, now in Missouri, as 
a Spanish settlement. On the 3d of November, 1788, Miro 
wrote to Valdez to say that the " affair" — the dismemberment 
of the Union — " proceeds more rapidly than I had presumed, 
and some considerable impetus is given to it by the answer of 
Congress to the application of Kentucky to be admitted into 
the Union as an independent State." " Eest assured" he fur- 
ther wrote " that Brown (a delegate to Congress from Ken- 
tucky), on his arrival in Kentucky (he was then in attendance 
upon Congress) finding Wilkinson and his associates disposed 
to surrender themselves up to Spain, or at least to put them- 
selves under her protection will easily join them ; and it is 
probable, as Wilkinson has already foretold it, that, next 
spring, I shall have to receive here a deputation appointed in 
due form." This deputation, however, never arrived. Wil 
kmson wrote under date of February 12th, 1789, to Mii-o, from 
Lexington, Kentucky, saying : 

" Immediately after having sent you my dispatcli by Major Dunn, I 
devoted all my faculties to our political designs, and I have never since 
turned aside from the pursuit of the important object we have in view. 
If subsequent events have not come up to our expectations, still I con- 

' See Gayarre's " Spaaish Domination," pages 216-17. 



FURTHER DETAILS OF THE PLOT. 191 

ceive that they are such as to inspire us with flattering hopes of success 
in due time, and, although in the conjectural opinions which I presented 
to you and Navarro, I may, in some particulars, have been deceived, you 
will yet see that, in the main, I expressed myself with a prophetic spirit, 
and that imj)ortant events have occiUTed, to confirm the accuracy of my 
sentiments. 

" When Major Dunn left Kentucky, I had opened myself only to the 
Attorney General Innis, and to Colonel Bullitt, who favor our designs, 
and indirectly I had sounded others, whom I also found well disposed to 
adopt my ideas. But, having made a more strict examination, I dis- 
covered that the proposed new Government of the United States had 
inspired some with apprehensions, and others with hopes — so much so 
that I saw that this circumstance would be a cause of some opposition 
and delay. I also perceived that all idea that Kentucky would subject 
itself to Spain must be abandoned for the present, and that the only 
feasible plan to the execution of which I had to direct my attention 
was that of a sejjaration from the United States, and an alliance with 
Spain, on conditions which could not yet be defined with precision. I 
considered that, whatever be the time when the separation should be 
brought about, this district being then no longer under the protection 
of the United States, Spain might dictate her own terms; for which 
reason, I embraced without delay this last alternative. 

" The question of separation from the United States, although dis- 
cussed with vehemence among the most distinguished inhabitants of 
this section of the country, had never been mentioned, in a formal man- 
ner, to the people at large, but now was the time for making this im- 
portant and interesting experiment, and it became my indispensable 
mission to do so. I had to work on a ground not yet prepared for the 
seed to be deposited in it, and I felt that, to produce a favorable im- 
pression, I had to proceed with reserve, and avoid with the utmost care 
any demonstration which might be calculated to cause surprise or alarm. 
For these motives, I gave an equivocal shape to the expression of my 
design, speaking of it in general terms, as being recommended by emi- 
nent politicians of the Atlantic coast, with whom I had conversed on 
this affair ; and thus, by indirect suggestions and arguments, I inspired 
the people with my own views, without presenting them as such, be- 
cause it would have been imprudent in me to divulge them under the 
existing circumstances, and I can give you the solemn assurance that I 
found all the men belonging to the first class of society in the district, 
with the exception of Colonel Marshall, our surveyor, and Colonel Muter, 
one of our Judges, decidedly in favor of separation from the United 
States and of an alliance with Spain." 

He then proceeds to detail proceedings of much interest in 
regard to the political operations of the year consequent on 



192 CONSPIRACY OF WILKINSON. 

Kentucky's endeavor to form a State, and then adds in justifi- 
cation of the two-faced part which he played : 

" To consolidate the interests and confirm the confidence of our friends, 
to try our strength, to familiarize the jjeople with what we aim at, to 
dissipate the apprehension which important innovations generally pro- 
duce, and to provoke the resentment of Congress with a view to stimu- 
late that body into some invidious political act, which might excite 
the passions of the people ; these are the motives which influenced me, 
and on which I rely for my justification." 

Wilkinson, in this important communication, lifts the vail 
upon the secession scheme which he encouraged, while he se- 
cretly plotted to transfer the State to the keeping of Spain. 
After divulging the machinations which he had set on foot, 
^nd betrayed the results of an interview held with an emissary 
of Lord Dorchester, Governor-General of Canada (who propos- 
ed to assist the men of the West in driving Spain from her 
Louisiana possessions), Wilkinson came to the confessional 
thus : 

"After having read these remarks, you will be surprised at being in- 
formed, that lately I have, jointly with several gentlemen of this coun- 
try, applied to Don Diego Gardoqui for a concession of land, in order 
to form a settlement on the river Yazoo. The motive of this applica- 
tion is to procure a place of refuge for myself and my adherents, in case 
it should become necessary for us to retire from this country, in order 
to avoid the resentment of Congress. It is true that there is not, so 
far, the slightest appearance of it, but it is judicious to provide for all 
possible contingencies." 

In his relation of the interview with Colonel Connelly, the 
British emissary to provoke a descent upon New Orleans for 
its seizure, we have the character of the Conspirator well deline- 
ated. After Connelly had divulged his whole information and 
secret proifers of assistance, Wilkinson resolved to get rid of 
him at once ; and, for that purpose, hired a hunter to waylay 
the agent with the apparent intent to murder him in revenge 
for excesses committed by the English and Indians in the War 
of the Eevolution. As Wilkinson held the office of " Civil 
Judge," the hunter was brought before him and committed 
"I availed myself," says the upright judge, "of this circum- 
stance to communicate to Connelly my fear of not being able 
to answer for the security of his person, and I expressed my 



FURTHER DUPLICITY. 193 

doubts whether he could escape with life. It alarmed him so 
much that he begged me to give him an escort to conduct him 
out of our territory, which I readily assented to, and, on the 
20th of November he recrossed the Ohio on his way back to 
Detroit." From Connelly he obtained full particulars of the 
British design to drive Spain from her possessions in the West 
K the messenger of Lord Dorchester represented truly, then 
Great Britain must have been willing to enlist in a war against 
France and Spain, since any active co-operation in sustaining, 
with arms, munitions and stores, a campaign against New Or- 
leans, must have resulted in a state of hostilities between the 
three great powers. 

In a private communication written to M. Miro, two days 
after the above lengthy dispatch the spy, the Conspirator makes 
still further divulgements, which prove that if he did not suc- 
ceed in transfessing Kentucky to Spain it was not for lack of 
rascality in trying to consummate his scheme. He made known 
the following precious items of news : 

" Don Diego Gjflrdoqui, about the month of March last, received from 
his court ample powers to make with the people of this district the ar- 
rangements he might think proper, in order to estrange them from the 
United States and induce them to form an alliance with Spain. I re- 
ceived this information, in the first j^lace, from Mr. Brown, the member 
of Congress for this district, who (since the taking into consideration of 
our application to be admitted into the Union has been suspended) en- 
tered into some free communications on this matter with Don Diego 
Gardoqui. He returned here in September last, and, finding that there 
had been some opposition to our project, he almost abandoned the cause 
in despair, and ijositively refused to advocate in public the propositions 
of Don Diego Gardoqui, as he deems them fatal to our cause. Brown 
is one of our deputies or agents ; he is a young man of respectable tal- 
ents, but timid, without jjolitical exjDerience, and with very little knowl- 
edge of the world. Nevertheless, as he firmly perseveres in his adher- 
ence to our interests, we have sent him to the new Congress, appai-ently 
as our representative, hut in reality as a spy on the actions of that body. I 
would myself have undertaken that charge, but I did not, for two rea- 
sons : first, my presence was necessary here, and next, I should liave 
found myself under the obligation of swearing to support the new Gov- 
ernment, which I am in duty bound to oppose." 

The letter-writer then proceeds to show up Gardoqui. In 
his true chaiacter of informer and dissimulator, Wilkinson 



194: CONSPIRACY OF WILKINSON. 

seeks by his items of news and his special version of Gardo^ 
qui's operations, to inflame Miro against the minister. Yet, 
despite this, he (Wilkinson) was seeking for favors from the 
minister— thus acknowledging his authority for granting lands, 
passes and commercial favors in the Louisiana territory. He 
(W.) confessed that himself, Brown, Major Dunn and others, 
had petitioned to Gardoqui for the grant of land to establish a 
colony on the Yazoo, above Natchez, as already referred to, 
that the conspirators, in case of disasters, might have a place 
of retreat. " With a view to removing every cause of distrust 
or unfavorable impression from Gardoqui's mind I wrote him 
a letter of which I send you a copy," said Wilkinson ; while, 
in trjdng to extenuate his application to the minister for the 
Yazoo grant, he said : " Our intention is to make an establish- 
ment on the ground mentioned in my communication of the 
12th, to estroy the plan of a certain Colonel Morgan^ 

What duplicity is here ! Seeks to cajole the Spanish minis- 
ter into giving a grant for a colony which the colonists propose 
to found in order to thwart Gardoqui's own agent, Morgan, in 
founding a colony above ! As if, only two days previously, he 
(Wilkinson) had not assured Miro that the special purpose in 
securing the grant was to obtain a place of refuge ! Miro was 
further informed that a spy was on Morgan's track who would 
keep him thoroughly informed of his rival's movements and 
operations. He seemed determined to crush out the New 
Madrid settlement of Morgan, saying : " probably it will destroy 
the noble fabric of which we have laid out the foundations and 
which we are endeavoring to keep." To a general defamation 
of Morgan's character and of his enterprise he added his warn- 
ing, thus : 

" I am informed that Morgan intends visiting you, as soon as he shall 
have finished the survey of the lands conceded to him. Permit me to 
supplicate you, my most esteemed of friends, not to give him any knowl- 
ledge of my plans, sentiments or designs. It is long since he has be- 
come jealous of me, and you may rest assured that, in reality, he is not 
well affected towards our cause, but that he allows himself to be entire- 
ly ruled by motives of the vilest self interest, and therefore that he will 
net scruple, on his return to New York, to destroy me. One of the 
objects of Major Dunn, in seeing Gardoqui, is to sound him on this 
afifair, and I doubt not but that he will do so successfully." 



A NEW "AGENT." 195 

The letter to Gardoqui, referred to above as having been 
written by Wilkinson, has been found in the archives at 
Madrid. A copy was made for the State of Louisiana — in 
whose State library it and all other documents obtairwed by 
the special commission appointed for that purpose, were de- 
posited. Our space forbids its reproduction. It was very 
friendly ; full of assurances of consideration ; apparently made 
a full avowal of his (Wilkinson's) designs, &c. ; and yet, as we 
learn by the private letter to Miro, it was all false — was de- 
signed simply to deceive the Ministers ! How could the Gov- 
ernor of Louisiana trust such a great rogue ? He himself was 
an intriguant and desired to use his " friend"' as an instrument, 
trusting to his own shrewdness to outwit any Yankee game 
which Wilkinson might attempt to play. That the Conspira- 
tor was playing successfully for his own interests pecuniarily 
is evident, for Miro, in his dispatches to Madrid, of April 11th, 
1789, recommended the Minister to repay Wilkinson the sum 
of five thousand dollars which he (W.) declared he had spent 
in the cause of Spain ; also that the Ministry intrust him (W.) 
with two thousand and five hundred dollars as asked for, with 
which to corrupt Marshall and Muter [see page 191] ! Miro 
also informs the Ministry that he had bought of W. on account 
of the royal treasury, 235,000 pounds of tobacco, which trans- 
action he requested the government to approve " on the ground 
that it was important to keep the General contented." The 
General was certainly operating to his own advantage. 

At this stage of the conspiracy a new agent appears on the 
scene — Dr. James White — a representative of Gardoqui to the 
inhabitants of Frankland (Sevier's "State of Franklin,") to ar- 
range for their transfer of allegiance to Spain. This was in 
answer to Sevier's letter referred to in foot note page 162. After 
visiting Sevier and other plotters of treason in the Cumberland 
region White wrote to Miro as follows, under date of April 
18th, 1788 : 

" With regard to Frankland, Don Diego Gardoqui gave me letters for 
the chief men of that district, with instructions to assure them that, if 
they wished to put themselves under the protection of Spain and favor 
her interests, they should be protected in their civil and political gov- 



196 CONSPIRACY OF WILKINSON. 

ernment, in the form and manner most agreeable to them, on the fol- 
lowing conditions : 

" 1st — It should be absolutely necessary, not only in order to hold 
any o^ce, but also any land in Frankland, that an oath of allegiance 
be taken to his Majesty, the object and purport of which should be to 
defend his government and faithful vassals on all occasions, and against 
all his enemies, whoever they might be. 2d. — That the inhabitants of 
that district should renounce all submission or allegiance whatever to 
any other Sovereign or power. They have eagerly accejited these con- 
ditions, and the Spanish minister has referred me to your favor, pat- 
ronage and assistance to facilitate my operations. With regard to 
Cumberland, what I have said of Frankland apj)lies with equal force 
and truth." 

Miro advanced White four hundred dollars " to facilitate his 
dealing decently and commodiously with those he was to in- 
fluence," and, in his official capacity, authorised special trade 
arrangements to be made with the people of those districts. 
But, he disavowed any purpose to assist or foment the scheme 
of secession then acting, "on account of the good harmony 
which exists between his Catholic Majesty and the United 
States" — a qualification which sounds ludicrous when we con- 
sider that White was supplied with money to help on the 
emeutd, that special trades' regulations were extended to the 
people, and that the grand scheme of the Governor and Wil- 
kinson contemplated the robbery from the United States of the 
entire Kentucky region. The explanation is found in the 
fact that Miro preferred to have Gardoqui's influence cast 
overboard and his own substituted — as we are informed by the 
Governor's private letters to Wilkinson, giving him a full ac- 
count of the efibrts of Dr. White and of others operating in 
the Territory of Miro — as the Cumberland district was called 
by the intriguants. And Miro, in his dispatches to Madrid of 
April 30th, 1789, alluded to the affair with Sevier's govern- 
ment, saying: 

" The answer which I have given to White, and which he is to show 
to the principal men of Miro and Frankland, is so framed, that, should 
it miscarry, it will afford no cause of complaint to the United States; 
but verbally, I have energetically recommended to him to use the most 
strenuous efforts to procure the desired separation." 

Nothing came of this affair. The reverse in Governor Se- 



THE CONSPIRACY FAILS. 197 

vier's fortunes and the loyalty of the people to their State, pre- 
cluded all hopes of Spanish domination in Franklin and Cum 
berland. A change appears to have come over the Conspira- 
tors' hopes of the Kentucky people. On the 20th of January, 
1790, Wilkinson wrote to Miro to say that " the general per- 
mission to export the products of this country through the 
Mississippi river, on paying a duty of 15 per cent, has worked 
the consequences which I feared, because, every motive of dis- 
content having thus been removed, the political action has 
subsided, and to-day there is not one word said about separa- 
tion." And again: "The pruriency of emigration has been 
soothed and allayed by the spirit of trade which engrosses 
general attention." But, trade alone was not the most power- 
ful agent at work to cut asunder the Conspirators' webs and 
snares for betraying Kentucky. George Washington was then 
at the head of affairs. His influence began to permeate through 
all society ; the strong arm of Government began to be felt 
and recognised ; the head of faction and discontent disappear 
ed ; treason began to fear for its reward. Wilkinson wrote : 

" On my arrival here, I discovered a great change in tliose who had 
been our warmest friends. Many, who loudly repudiated all connection 
with the Union, now remain silent. I attribute this, either to the hope 
of promotion, or to the fear of punishment. According to my prognos- 
tic, Washington has begun to operate on the chief heads of this district. 
Innis has been appointed a Federal judge with an annual salary of one 
thousand dollars ; George Nicholas, district attorney ; Samuel McDow- 
ell, son of the president of the Convention, and Marshall, have been 
appointed to offices somewhat resembling that of Alguazil Mayor; and 
Pay ton Short, the brother of our charge d'affaires at Versailles, is made 
a custom-house officer. But he has resigned, and probably will visit 
you in the spring. I do not i^lace much reliance on George Nicholas 
and Samuel McDowell. But I know that Harry Innis is friendly to 
Spain and hostile to Congress, and I am authorized to say that he would 
much prefer receiving a pension from New Orleans than from New York. 
Should the King approve our design on this point, it will have to be 
broached with much delicacy, caution and judgment, &c. * * * And 
I fear that we can rely on a few only of my countrymen, if we cannot 
make use of liberal donations," &c. 

At a later date he expressed these characterist sentiments : 
"I am justified in saying that Congress strongly suspects my connec- 
tion with you, and that it spies my movements in this section of the 

25 



198 COlSrSPIRACY OF WILKINSON. 

country. Consequently, an avowed intention on my part to induce 
these people here to separate from the Union, before the majority of 
them show a disposition to support me, would endanger my personal 
security, and would deprive me of the opportunity of serving you in 
these parts. My situation is mortally painful, because, while I abhor 
all duplicity, I am obliged to dissemble. This makes me extremely de- 
sirous of resorting to some contrivance that will put me in a position, 
in which I flatter myself to be able to profess myself publicly the vassal 
of his Catholic Majesty, and therefore to claim his protection, in what- 
ever public or private measures I may devise to promote the interest of 
the Crown." 

All of wliicli proved to Miro that Anglo-Saxon " manifest 
destiny" already had swept away forever his scheme of aggran- 
disement. Yet he seemed to struggle against the uncomforta- 
ble conclusion. He wrote under date of April 80th, 1790 : 

" I therefore confidently hope that, with your characteristic persever- 
ance, making use of the information which I give you, and which will 
be confirmed by your countrymen on their return, you will be able to 
re^^ve our political designs, by sowing broad-cast, and causing to ger- 
minate among your people, such ideas as will seem to you best calcu- 
lated to establish the conviction, that the welfare of the inhabitants of 
Kentucky depends, either on their forming a close and strong connec- 
tion with Spain, or on their seeking to better their fortune by becoming 
denizens of Louisiana." 

And, in regard to that passage of Wilkinson's letter already 
given, where he avows himself an object of suspicion, Miro thus 
caustically gave his views : 

" I much regret that General Washington and Congress suspect your 
connection with me, but it does not appear to me opportune that you 
declare yourself a Spaniard, for the reasons which you state. I am of 
opinion that this idea of yours is not convenient, and that, on the con- 
trary, it might have prejudicial results. Therefore, continue to dissemlle 
and to work as you pi-omise, and as I have indicated.'''' 

There is little more here to be written to illustrate this record 
of the General's complicity with the Spaniards to dismember 
the country. We could add, perhaps profitably to the reader, 
several pages, concerning the rise, progress and success of the 
South Corolina Company, but we should not be warranted in 
absorbing more space with this theme. Wilkinson, it was 
soon discovered, not only had failed to accomplish the propos- 
ed work in Kentucky, but was intriguing to obtain an influ- 



THE governor's DISAPPOINTMENT. 199 

ence in this new Company, in wLicli Spain found a formidable 
opponent to lier plans of empire. Miro, in his dispatches of 
May 22d, 1790, wrote to express his extreme disappointment 
at the rather disgraceful termination to his three years' machi- 
nation and intrigue. He added : 

" Nevertheless, I am of oiDinion tbat said Brigadier-General ought to 
be retained in the service of his Majesty, with an annual pension of two 
thousand dollars, which I have already proposed in my confidential 
dispatch No. 46, because the inhabitants of Kentucky, and of the other 
establishments on the Ohio, will not be able to undertake anything 
against this j^rovince, without his communicating it to us, and without 
his making at the same time all possible efforts to dissuade them from 
any bad designs against us, as he has already done repeatedly." 

And then concluded with a recommendation of a pension 
for Sebastian, "because I think it proper to treat with this in- 
dividual, who will be able to enlighten me on the conduct of 
Wilkinson, and on what we have to expect from the plans of 
the said Brigadier-General." 

O most impotent conclusion ! says the reader. It is so truly, 
simply because the conspiracy was a failure, and it stands as 
such in the history of our country. But, it was a gigantic 
scheme of plotting against the integrity of this government, as 
well as against the liberties of the people ; and, despite its fail- 
ure, forms a very exciting and important chapter in the story 
of American Conspiracies. Wilkinson, the chief aid and abet- 
tor of the Spaniards, again comes on the stage in his connec- 
tion with Aaron Biirr's designs upon the old Spanish do- 
minion. The chapter here given will so inform the reader of 
his true character that the story of his connection with Burr's 
plans of empire will receive a new interest. 

The reader is not to infer that, with Kentucky's admission 
to the Union (1792) all danger of conspiracy in her borders 
passed away. The French Minister to the United States, Ge- 
net — a name offensive to every American patriot's mind — had 
so deeply stirred the turbulent element of our democracy that, 
for years after his recall, the people of the Ohio and Mississip- 
pi valleys were in a state of almost constant ferment. In 1794 
the democratic society of Lexington, Kentucky, opened a cor 
respondence with the people of the East for the purpose of 



200 CONSPIRACY OF WILKINSON. 

uniting them in a crusade against Spain and against the Presi- 
dent and Congress for not seizing the Louisiana territory and 
opening the Mississippi river to free navigation A remon- 
strance drawn up and sent in to Congress was highly indecorous 
and threatening. They demanded, in peremptory words, the 
free navigation of the great river, alluding to their past mode- 
ration in not having already used the means in their power to 
assert their " rights" — that is, in declaring their independence 
and in forming a league of States west of the mountains. This 
was but an indication of the strong undercurrent prevailing 
against the General Government, and which came near to 
plunging this country into a war with Spain and Great Britain. 
To this conspiracy of the French faction and the democratic soci- 
eties we devote a paper, to which we call the attention of those 
who would be fully informed of the dangers through which 
the Union has passed. 

A second attempt was made by Carondelet, Miro's successor, 
to seduce the Territory of Kentucky into Spanish embraces. 
Carondelet dispatched Powers and Sebastian to Philadelphia, 
from whence Powers returned, in the Summer of 1796, with an 
elaborate plan of operations for carrying the State over to 
Spanish possession. But, though making an apparently feasi- 
ble and powerful appeal to the cupidity of the people, it failed. 
Wilkinson having been made Major-General in the place of 
Wayne, (who had died in December, 1796,) was approached 
with a bribe of ten thousand dollars ; but, though appealed to 
as the "Washington of the West," he did not see success 
enough in store to warrant a transfer of his army and services 
to the cause of disunion. Carondelet's attempt to seduce the 
State from its allegiance was the last made by the Louisiana 
(Spanish) Governors. 



THE WHISKEY INSURRECTION. 



After his tour tlirougli the Southern States, in the Spring 
and Summer of 1791, President Washington wrote (July 20th): 
" As this law (the excise) came in force only on the first of 
this month, little can be said of its effects, from experience ; 
but, from the best information I could get on my journey, re- 
specting its operation on the minds of the people — and I took 
some pains to obtain information on this point — there remains 
no doubt but it will be carried into effect, not only without 
opposition but with very general approbation in those very 
parts where it was foretold that it would never be submitted 
to by any one. It is possible, however, and perhaps not im- 
probable that some demagogue may start up, produce and get 
signed some resolutions declaratory of their disapprobation of 
the measure." 

Even while the revered Washington was thus traveling for 
information, and was conferring with leading men of the South, 
Thomas Jefferson, then Secretary of State, was traveling through 
the Northern States concerting those measures of opposition to 
the Federal Administration which resulted in the formation of 
the " Democratic" party and the election of himself and Aaron 
Burr to the offices of President and Vice President of the Fed- 
eral Government " Anti-Federal" ideas had existed to a con- 
siderable extent, during the first two years of Washington's 
term ; but, the success of his administration — the astonishing 
vitalization infused into the new government by him — the 
great confidence rapidly following upon Hamilton's financial 
conduct of the Treasury Department — served to allay opposi- 
tion, and the Spring of 1791 found the people quite recon- 



/ 



202 THE WHISKEY INSURRECTION'. 

ciled to the Administration's measures. This unity Jeffer- 
son secretly essayed to break. Washington he dare not assail 
directly ; but, his fertile mind soon conceived the ways and 
means of an opposition to the Federalism of Washington, Ham- 
ilton, Marshall, Adams and Franklin, through the medium of 
a party. With issues pandering to the tastes and prejudices 
of the masses ; with representations of bugbears of aristocratic 
monsters cloaked beneath the forms of law ; ,with expressions 
of sympathy for " the people" which he assumed the Federal- 
ists could not and did not feel, it was not an arduous task to 
excite an opposition to the policy of the men named. In May, 
17^1, accompanied by Madison, Jefferson visited New York 
to concert with Aaron Burr, Clinton and Chancellor Living- 
ston — the three personal opponents of Hamilton and Schuyler. 
With these three confirmed intriguants, Jefferson and Madison 
matured their plans for an open and active opposition te the 
Federalist party. In those men' were found the " demagogue" 
whom Washington feared might arise to excite animosity 
against his measures. To their loose principles regarding ISTa- 
-tional and State relations ; regarding the right of the individual 
to sit in judgment on the acts of the Executive and of Congress; 
regarding the integrity of oaths of National fealty ; regarding the 
right of government to enforce law and to suppress sedition — do 
we owe, and shall continue to owe, in a gi-eat measure, the exist- 
ence of treason and rebellion in our midst. 

Upon the assumption, by the Federal Government, of debts 
incurred by States in their War for independence, it became 
necessary to provide for the interest, and gradual liquidation 
of the principal, of that debt — making $826,000 to be added 
to 'the annual tax list in support of the Federal Government. 
This sum, Alexander Hamilton, then Secretary of the Treasu- 
ry, proposed to raise by an "excise" tax on distilleries, and by 
additional duties on imported liquors. In confirmation of the 
Treasurer's recommendation, the Congress of 1791-92 enacted 
la\\ s imposing upon all imported spirits a duty varying from 

* Aaron Burr succeeded Schuyler in the U. S. Senate (1791) and was Vice Pres» 
ident during JeflFerson's first term : Clinton was Vice President during Jefferson's 
•e«ond term. Livingston was made Minister to France. 



ENACTMENT OF THE EXCISE BILL. 203 

twenty to forty cents a gallon.' The excise to be collected 
on domestic spirits varied, with their strength, from nine 
to twenty-five cents per gallon on those distilled fi-om 
grain, and from eleven to thirty cents when the material 
was molasses or any other imported product, thus allow- 
ing considerable discrimination in favor of the exclusively 
" home product" For the collection of these duties each State 
was made an inspection district, with its supervisor, and each 
district was subdivided into surveys of inspection, each with 
its inspector. All distillers were required to enter their distil- 
leries at the nearest office of inspection, with a complete de- 
scription of all their buildings — which buildings were to be 
subject to the constant examination of an inspector appointed 
for that purpose, who was to guage and brand the casks. All 
duties were to be paid before the removal of the spirits from 
the distillery. But, to save expense and trouble to both par- 
ties in this constant oversight, small stills not located in any 
town or village, were to pay an annual rate of sixty cents per 
gallon on the capacity of the still. All casks containing spirits 
not properly branded and certified were liable to forfeiture. 
These were the leading features of the law against which the 
Pennsylvanians proposed to protest by force of arms. 

Pennsylvania at that time manufactured great quantities of 
whiskey. Indeed, it was manufactured liberally by all the 
States, and became so common as a beverage as to be reckoned 
one of the actual necessaries of life ! Its tax, and consequent 

1 See Hildreth's " History of the United States," Second Series, vol. ii. pages 
254-55. The law was very strenuously opposed in and out of Congress. The 
Pennsylvania Legislature passed strong resolutions against its passage. Findley, 
Smiley, Snyder and Gallatin, members of that body and opponents of the 
law, were afterwards deeply implicated in the insurrection. During the debate in 
Congress, pending the passage of the law, a North Carolina representative, Steele, 
stated that the consumption of liquor in his State was greater, by ten times, than 
that of Connecticut — making it appear that whiskey was a prime necessity. The 
law finally passed the U. S. House of Representatives by a vote of.35 to 21. The 
feeling against it at once became very violent in North Carolina, Virginia, Mary- 
land and Pennsylvania — States most affected by its operations. In the latter State, 
there were nearly or quite five thousand public and private stills in 1790. The 
large majority of farmers manufactured all their marketable corn and rye into 
whiskey. It was at once the staple and the curse of the country. 



204: THE WHISKEY INSURRECTION. 

enlaancement of cost to tlie consumer, created as mucli feeling 
as if flour and bacon were to become agents in replenisHing an 
exhausted treasury. But, in Pennsylvania, west of the Alle- 
ghany mountains, the excitement soon assumed the tone of a 
menace. In that particular section the chief grain grown was 
rye, which, in the shape of whiskey, could be transported to 
the east and there be exchanged for every needed commodity. 
Whiskey thus became a kind of currency. To tax it was re- 
garded as an arbitrary assumption which it was as just and 
necessary to repudiate as to resist the tea and stamp tax im- 
posed by the British Parliament. 

The opposition party which was then forming seized upon 
Western Pennsylvania as a fertile field. The secret " demo 
cratic societies" vied with the emissaries of France in ex 
citing a spirit of opposition to the Federal Grovernment. Al 
though a member of Washington's cabinet, it is proven be 
yond all question that Jefferson's influence contributed to fos 
ter the spirit of license and dislike of restraint which was de 
veloped rapidly by the factionists, during the years 1791-94, 
In Western Pennsylvania the immediate pretext for opposition 
was the excise ; but, the disease had another instigator beside 
whiskey. Washington gives us the key to that other agent 
of disturbance — the " Democratic" societies, of which Mr. Jef- 
ferson ultimately became the recognized head — in a letter to 
Judge Jay : 

" 'The self-created societies who have spread themselves over this coun- 
try have been laboring incessantly to sow the seeds of distrust, jealousy, 
and, of course, discontent, hoping thereby to effect some revolution in 
the Government, is not unknown to you. That they have been the fo- 
menters of the western disturbances admits of no doubt in the mind of 
any one who will examine their conduct. But, fortunately, they have 
precipitated a crisis for which they were not prepared, and thereby un- 
folded views which will, I trust, effect their annihilation sooner than it 
might have happened. An occasion has also been afforded for the peo- 
ple of this country to show their abhorrence of the result, and their 
attachment to the constitution and laws ; for I believe that five times 
the number of militia that were required would have come forward in 
support of them had it been necessary.' 

" In his speech to Congress, after praising the alacrity with which 



SOURCE OF THE UPRISING. 205 

persons came forward in sup^Dort of tlie laws and Government, Washing- 
ton said : 

" ' To every description, indeed, of citizens, let praise be given; but Jet 
them persevere in their affectionate vigilance over that precious deposi- 
tory of American happiness, the Constitution of the United States. Let 
them cherish it, too, for the sake of those who, from every clime, are 
daily seeking a dwelling in our land, And when, in the calm moments 
of reflection, they have retraced the origin and progress of the insurrec- 
tion, let them determine whether it has not been fomented by combina- 
tions of men, who, careless of consequences, and disregarding the uner- 
ring truth that those who rouse cannot always ajjpease a civil convul- 
sion, have disseminated from ignorance or perversion of facts suspicions, 
jealousies and accusations of the whole Government.' " 

The United States Senate, in its reply to "Washington's speech 
at the opening of Congress, Nov. 19th, 1794, said : 

" Our anxiety, arising from the licentious and open resistance of the 
laws in the western counties of Pennsylvania, has been increased by the 
proceedings of certain self-created societies relative to the laws and ad- 
ministration of the Government. Proceedings, in our apprehension, 
founded in political error; calculated, if not intended, to disorganize 
our Government, and which, by inspiring delusive hopes of support, 
have been instrumental in misleading our fellow-citizens in the scene of 
insurrection." 

We here have a hint as to the true source of the uprising 
against the General Government — the same source which in- 
spired Shays' rebellion, viz : — a set of demagogues, who, to 
elevate themselves to power created popular disafiection, and, 
by compelling the Government to defend itself, gained the title 
of " people's champion" by being recognised as opposed to 
" tyranny." We have not been without this class of men since 
that time, and, in the State Eights administration of 1860, 
witnessed the final culmination of their pernicious influence. 

Those chiefly instrumental in exciting the people to resist- 
ance were Bradford, prosecuting attorney for the District; 
Brackenridge, Judge of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania ; 
Findlay, member of Congress, and late a member of the State 
Legislature ; Albert Gallatin, an emigrant from Switzerland, a 
large landholder and a man of great personal influence ; Mar- 
shall, Registrar of the District. Others were implicated among 
those holding ofiice under the State and General Governments : 
like certain other patriots of a later day, they did not hesitate 
26 



206 THE WHISKEY INSURRECTION. 

to take the money of, wliile they were conspiring against, their 
employer. These men so succeeded in inflaming the public 
mind that combinations were formed in the four western coun- 
ties to resist by force the execution of the law. A convention 
of leading citizens assembled at Eedstone Old Fort, (now 
Brownsville,) July 26th, 1791, to take the subject of opposition 
to the law into consideration. It resolved the act of Congress 
to be " unequal in its operation, immoral in its effects, danger- 
ous to liberty, and especially oppressive to the inhabitants of 
the western country." Arrangements were perfected for the 
organization of county committees which were to assemble at 
Pittsburgh on the 7th of September, to concert uniform action. 
The committee for Washington county assembled on the 23d 
of August. Among its members were the County Eegistrar, 
the Deputy Attorney-General for the State, Judge of the Su- 
preme Court, and other public functionaries. The spirit of this 
body of regulators may be infeiTcd from their declaration " that 
any person who had accepted, or may accept an office under 
Congress, in order to carry the law into effect, would be con- 
sidered as inimical to the interests of the country" ; and the 
committee " recommended the citizens of Washington county 
to treat every person who had accepted such office, or might 
thereafter accept, with contempt ; and absolutely refuse all kind 
of communication or intercourse with the officers, and to with- 
hold from them all aid, support and comfort." 

The general meeting of the County Committee was held at 
Pittsburg, Sept 7th. The day previous, Johnson, collector of 
revenue for Alleghany county, was seized by a body of men 
in disguise, shaved, tarred and feathered and ordered out of the 
District. This only preluded the feeling of the convention, 
which, beside condemning the excise and its enforcement, 
branched out into a general censure of the General Government, 
complaining of the exorbitant salaries of officers, of the unrea- 
sonable interest of the public debt, of the non-discrimination 
between original holders and transferees of that debt, of the 
institution of a National Bank, &c. &c. The Committee be- 
trayed an unmistakably seditious spirit, to which the mass of 
people seemed eager to respond. On the 8th, processes were 



MODIFICATION OF THE EXCISE. 207 

obtained for the arrest of those guiltj of the outrage upon 
Johnson, the collector. The marshal dispatched his writs to a 
deputy for service, when the messenger was caught, whipped, 
tarred and feathered, led naked to the woods, where he was 
tied, blindfolded, to a tree. His horse was stolen and he left 
to perish miserably. But he was accidentally discovered and 
released. Other outrages followed — several of which were 
characterised by great cruelty, and, so great became the fear 
of violence that officers could neither be found to arrest the 
guilty nor to enforce the collection of the excise. The law, 
therefore, was a dead letter in that section during 1791, No 
means existed whereby the National authorities could enforce 
the National laws ; aside from court processes and the action 
of marshals no power rested with the Executive to compel 
obedience to the laws. Such had been the fears of the State- 
rights' politicians that the General Government had not yet 
been clothed with authority to sustain its own dignity. It was 
not until April, 1792, that Congress passed the National Mili- 
tia law which (in 1863) was, with slight modification in each 
State, the law of the land. That act empowered the President 
to call forth the militia of any State or surrounding States in 
case of invasion by any foreign nation or Indian tribe, or im- 
minent danger thereof; or in case of insurrection in any State, 
application heing made hy its Legislature or Executive; or, in case 
of combinations to resist the laws of the United States too 
strong to be suppressed by the ordinary course of justice— such 
fact being first certified by the Federal Judge for the District, 
or by one of the Judges of the Supreme Court of the United 
States. This act was passed by the Federalists, in view, not 
only of the danger of resistance to the excise, but of revolu- 
tion which, at any moment, the French party and the " demo- 
cratic societies" might precipitate. 

A considerable modification of the excise and its enforce- 
ment was made by Congress at the suggestion of Hamilton, 
Secretary of the Treasury. The duties were diminished from 
one to seven cents per gallon, according to proof and kind — 
the highest duty being fixed at twenty-five cents per gallon 
and the lowest at seven cents. Small country distillers were 



208 THE WHISKEY I NS U R E E C T 10 N. 

allowed to pay a monthly instead of a yearly rate upon the 
capacity of their stills and to take out licenses for any period 
which pleased them. The offices for executing the law were 
so modified as to render them as little annoying as possible. 

These changes, however, like most compromises with an in- 
surrectionary spirit, produced only renewed hostility to the 
revenue measure. " Opposition subsided" it was said, " in 
several districts where it before prevailed ; and the hope was 
indulged that the refractory parts of Pennsylvania would grad- 
ually acquiesce in the execution of the law." But, it was a 
fallacious hope. The insurrectionists had no idea of giving in 
tWthe' Government. Their "democratic societies" preferred to 
make an issue with the administration, and used the excise as 
a convenient protest — -just as the secessionists of 1861-62 used 
the legal election of an anti-Slavery man to the Presidency as 
a pretext for their diabolical scheme to found a pure Slave 
confederacy. Albert Gallatin was one of the leading spirits in 
fomenting this continued hostility to the Government. He 
and his friends resolved that no oSicer of inspection should be 
permitted to exercise his functions in each county. This 
openly expressed antagonism induced the preparation, by Ham- 
ilton, of an address to the people, explaining the law and en- 
deavoring to reconcile the discontented to its operations. 
Though widely circulated and canvassed in the four counties, 
it failed to appease the turbulent passions aroused by whiskey 
and the democratic leaders. An Inspector of Kevenue obtain- 
ed a house, after much effort, in Washington county. Its own- 
er, a captain in the regular army, was entrapped by a body of 
regulators, and, under threats of tar, feathers and the scalping 
knife, and the burning of his house, was made to promise 
to eject the inspector, and so did. This implacable hostility to 
the law so painfully convinced Hamilton of the necessity for 
action, that, early in August, he wrote to Washington (then at 
Mount Vernon) urging a vigorous exertion of the law against 
the malcontents. "If" Washington replied, "after these (new) 
regulations are in operation, opposition is still experienced, 
and peaceable procedure is no longer effectual, the public in- 
terest and my duty will make it necessary to enforce the law 



vikginia's predominance. 209 

respecting this matter; and, however disagreeable this would 
be to me, it must nevertheless take place." Action of an im- 
perative character, it was soon evident, would be required. 

August 21st, 1792, a new Convention gathered at Pittsburg, 
at which Gallatin (soon after elected to the U. S. Senate) acted 
as secretary. It was violent in its resolutions ; counselled a 
determined opposition, by all " legal"(?) forms, to the enforce- 
ment of the law; appointed a committee to correspond with 
committees of a similar character that might be selected in 
other parts of the United States.* Such other steps were taken 
as were calculated to defeat the operation of the law. 

In view of this public and open combination, Hamilton a,t 
once drafted a proclamation with a design of sending it to the 
President for his signature. '^ George Clymer, Supervisor of 
the District, was ordered forthwith to repair to the survey, to 
"collect evidence in regard to the violence which had been 
committed, in order to a prosecution of the offenders," to as- 
certain the particulars of the meeting at Pittsbni'g, to encourage 
the officers of the revenue to continue their labors, &c. The 
Attorney General, Edmund Kandolph, of Virginia,* was con- 
sulted by the Secretary of the Treasury for an opinion as to 
whether an indictable oifence had been committed by the del- 
egation to that (Pittsburg) Convention, with a view of having 
their case brought before the Supreme Court then about to 
open its sessions at Yorktown, if the President thought an 
aiTaignment expedient^ In asking for this opinion Hamilton 

' See Marshall's " Washington," vol. ii. page 273. See also Hamilton's " His- 
ory of the Republic," vol. v., chap. Ixxxi. 

• See Randall's "Jefferson," vol. ii., pages 94, 95. 

■ It will be observed that the predominance of Virginia was acknowledged, by 
Washington's conferring two seats in the Cabinet to citizens of that State, viz.: Jef- 
ferson, Secretary of State, and Randolph, Attorney General. As the President 
also was a Virginian, erne half of the Administration was from that Commonwealth. It 
was many years before that extraordinary predominance was equalized — so potent 
was the " diplomatic" influence of Jefferson, Madison and Munroe — every one of 
whom became, in succession. Presidents of the United States. From 1789 to 1825 
(thirty-six years) Virginians occupied the Presidential chair the entire time, except 
the four years of John Adams' single term ! 

* See Hamilton's Works (Congressional Edition), vol. iv., page 284. See same, 
pages 286-88, for the letters of Washington, Hamilton and Randolph, covering the 



210 THE WHISKEY INSURRECTION. 

expressed his conviction to Washington that " it was indis- 
pensable, if competent evidence could be obtained, to exert 
the full force of the law against the offenders," and, if the "pro- 
cesses of the courts were resisted — as was rather to be expect- 
ed — to employ those means which, in the last resort, were put 
in the power of the Executive." He also conceived, in his 
letter to Washington (Sept. 1st) submitting the form of the 
proclamation, that moderation enough had been shown — that 
it was time to assume a different tone. Eandolph, while he 
did not oppose the proclamation, suggested amendments to its 
phraseology. He wished no harm to his fi-iends — for such, it 
afterwards appeared, the leaders of the insurrection were. His 
collusion with them and with the French faction will be allud- 
ed to hereafter. [See note at close of this paper.] Jefferson, 
then visiting his Monticello estate, took no part in these pre- 
liminary proceedings. Washington remitted for his signature 
(it then being the custom for the Secretary of State to counter- 
sign all Executive documents) the proclamation. Jefferson 
gave it his countersign, and suggested the same amendments 
advised by Eandolph, but, in no way committed himself to any 
endorsement of the course determined upon by Washington. 
At a later stage of the proceedings, after his withdrawal from 
the cabinet, he condemned the "invasion" of Western Pennsyl- 
vania and the "coercion" of its citizens by Federal arms.* The 
Secretary of State, before the affair was settled, was, like Ran- 
dolph, discovered to be, if not in direct league with Gallatin 

entire matter of the proclamation. The opinions therein enunciated stand as a 
valuable precedent for procedure in all similar cases of insurrection against the 
General Government. Had the " Democratic" Administration of James Buchanan 
in 1860, been as firm and wise as the Federalist Administration of Washington, how 
fortunate had it been for the country ! 

^ In a letter to Madison Jefferson said : " Hamilton says there is no possibility 
of getting the law executed there and that probably the evil (of insurrection) will 
spread. A proclamation is to be issued — another instance of my being forced to 
appear to approve what I have condemned uniformly from its first conception." 
Washington wrote to Hamilton that the reason he sent the proclamation to Jeffer- 
son for his signature was his desire to conform to previous practice and, " for ano- 
ther reason which has some weight in my mind." What that " other reason" was 
is, doubtless, indicated by Jefferson in the last sentence of the extract above quot- 
ed La his letter to Madison. 



THE PROCLAMATION. 211 

and Findley, yet not inimical to them. His feeling was openly 
expressed, when he came into the Executive chair, by appoint- 
ing Gallatin his Secretary of the Treasury. 

The proclamation, as drawn by Hamilton and amended by 
Jefferson, was issued Sept. loth, 1792. After stating that op- 
position to laws made pursuant to an express provision of the 
Constitution was subversive of good order and dangerous to 
the very being of Government — alluding to the moderation of 
the Government and the disposition manifested by the Legis- 
lature (Congress) to obviate the causes of objection — the pro- 
clamation admonished and exhorted all persons to refrain and 
desist from all unlawful combinations to obstruct the operation 
of these laws, and charged the magistrates to exert their pow- 
ers to enforce them. Not a very bellicose mandate, truly; 
yet, both Jefferson and Eandolph, as we have seen, did not 
fiivor even this exercise of the National Executive author- 
ity. Hamilton's purpose was to prosecute the offenders for 
violation of the law, and for resistance to its officers. With 
this view he consulted Eandolph, as legal adviser of the Gov- 
ernment. To the Treasurer's surprise he was informed that 
the Pittsburg Conventionists were not indictable ; and the first 
prosecution attempted, under Clymer's efforts, was abandoned 
fi'om evident want of authority to impress local courts with 
National ideas. This failure only confirmed the opposition in 
its contempt of a General Government which was powerless to 
enforce its laws and to protect its servitors. A denouement so 
mortifying illustrated the power of faction and the weakness 
of the National authority. Hamilton, however, resolved to see 
the law enforced, as was his duty. He conceived another plan 
to attain his object — ingenious and politic, but it also proved 
powerless, in view of the fact that no excise officers dared to 
exercise their functions in the disaffected region — so completely 
did the mob rule. 

Thus matters stood, up to the opening of Congress, Nov. 5th, 
1792, when Washington, in his speech, alluded to the failure 
of efforts to enforce the law. He assured Congress that " no- 
thing within Constitutional and legal limits" would be " want- 
ing to assert and maintain the just authority of the laws." " In 



212 THE WHISKEY INSURRECTION. 

fulfilling this trust I shall count entirely upon the full co-ope- 
ration of the other departments of the Government and upon 
the zealous support of all good citizens," said the President 

Nothing came however of efforts to enforce the law, but vi- 
olence and excitement. The President shrunk from the ordeal 
of calling in the military to assist in enforcing the law. He 
sought, by every means, to appease the malcontents. But 
even Washington's great influence did not suffice to obtain re- 
spect for the law or for the Government. Both were reviled 
with all the bitterness of vicious men conscious of power. The 
democratic societies were busy ; ceaselessly their leaders labor- 
ed to bring discredit upon the Government and to breed con- 
tempt for its laws. Armed men soon organized into patrols. 
As " regulators," these umpires visited every section of the 
four counties to punish every distiller who might seek to com- 
ply with the law, and to dispose summarily of any officer who 
should persist in exercising his functions. Tar and feathers 
were freely administered ; several houses were burned ; a local 
newspaper (the "Pittsburg Gazette") was pressed into the revo- 
lutionary service ; no man dared to defend the law for fear of 
violence to his person: anarchy reigned supreme. One John 
Holcroft, a ruffian sustained by the democratic societies, assum- 
ed a leadership of the armed patrol,* which, from its acts in 
"tinkering" the stills that would pay the law obedience, won 
the name of "Tom the Tinker." It became, during the Fall 
of the year 1793, a terror to all loyal citizens and a scourge to 
all officers of the Government. Holcroft was, in fact, a sans 
culotte of brutality and impudence, before whose power, all 
authority, both State and National, soon quailed. Even those 
leaders of the insurrection who had trifled with the law from 
the sordid motive of personal popularity, were affrighted at the 
monster which their own lawlessness had evoked. 

During 1794, the Administration having previously appoint- 
ed John Neville inspector of the district, resolved to press pro- 
secution against those who had failed to comply with the law 
— being empowered by a special act of the late Congress to call 
the delinquents to account. Neville, a very influential man 
of wealth and family position, resolved to see the laws of Con- 




R 3- 






Neville's house destkoyed. 215 

gress obeyed and assumed office to perform his duties at all 
hazards. Through his exertions indictments were found against 
thirty distillers who had neglected to enter their stills. War- 
rants were issued against each offender and all except one were 
served by the marshal, in company with Neville. On the road 
to the last delinquent, the marshal and inspector were met by 
a party of "tinkers," who at once fired upon the officers and 
caused them to fly for their lives. Neville returned to his fine 
mansion, eight miles from Pittsburg, whither he was pursued 
by the regulators. On the morning of July 16th, 179-1, his 
house was assailed, by forty of the ruffians. Neville was pre- 
pared for them. Having armed his negroes and others in the 
house, he repulsed the assailants, wounding six of them, one 
mortally. The ruffians withdrew and gave out that they would 
" finish the job"' on the morrow. The inspector appealed to 
two magistrates, and to the county militia commanders, for 
protection, but obtained for answer that they were powerless 
to give it. He then summoned a guard from Fort Pitt. Eleven 
regulars, under Major Fitzpatrick, were detailed to protect the 
house in case of assault. The regulators appeared on the 
ground July 17th, with a force numbering nearly five hundred 
desperadoes, all fully armed. They were under the leaderehi'|) 
of one McFarlane, formerly a lieutenant in the Continental 
army. Neville's surrender was demanded, but the inspector 
had escaped, foreseeing the too evident result if he remained. 
When informed of this, McFarlane demanded admittance to 
the house, with five others, to search for papers connected with 
Neville's office and operations. This demand was refused, 
when the insurgents ordered the women and children to with- 
draw from the house. The attack quickly followed. It was 
answered with spirit by the regulars. McFarlane was killed 
and several of his men wounded. Infuriated, the " tinkers" at 
once fired the outbildings. The mansion was soon in flames, 
when the regulars capitulated — three of them having been 
wounded. The fine dwelling and outbuildings were consumed, 
and the grounds around laid waste. The marshal and Ne- 
ville's son, appearing on the ground, were seized and rather 
roughly used but not injured- The officer was dismissed only 
27 



216 THE WHISKEY INSURRECTION-. 

after having given his solemn promise to serve no more pro- 
cesses west of the mountains. 

Neville and the marshal having taken refuge in Pittsburg, 
were followed by two delegates from the mob. A demand 
was made for the first to resign his office and for the marshal 
to deliver up all warrants and processes in his possession — a 
demand peremptorily refused. The ferment which followed 
was threatening. Neville would have retired to the fort, but 
such demonstrations were preparing for an outbreak as induc- 
ed the inspector and marshal to slip down the river to Mari- 
etta. From thence they passed over the mountains to Phila- 
delphia, to report an end to all peaceful measures for enforcing 
the law. 

These proceedings were followed by the wildest excitement 
throughout the four counties. A public meeting was called 
at Mingo creek meeting house, July 23d. Bradford, Bracken- 
ridge and Marshall were present. The first proposed to take 
up arms and to defy the Government. The second declared 
against such violence as had been shown. He preferred not 
to involve those friendly to the best interests of their section 
by endorsing the late riot. The " tinker" faction was in the 
ascendant, but Brackenridge succeeded in effecting a call for a 
convention, to be composed of delegates from all townships 
west of the mountains and from the adjoining counties of Ma- 
ryland and Virginia. This convention was to meet at Parkin- 
son's Ferry, on the Monongahela river, in three weeks. Dur- 
ing this period it was impossible for the insurrectionary spirit 
to remain quiet. Three days after the Mingo meeting, by 
Bradford's order, the mail bound east from Pittsburg was seiz- 
ed (July 26th). It contained, as was expected, letters to the 
United States authorities, implicating those most guilty in the 
late transactions. Bradford, Marshall and others at once issu- 
ed a circular to all commandants of militia in the western 
counties, to muster as many men as possible and to rendezvous 
at Braddock's Field with arms and four days' rations. The 
reason urged for this summons was that, in the intercepted 
mail, a discovery had been made which rendered a resort to 
action necessary. August 1st found not less than seven thou- 



ROBBERY OF THE MAIL. 217 

sand armed men at the place of rendezvous. A meeting was 
organized. Says Hildreth : " Colonel Cook, one of the judges 
of Fayette county, a member of the first popular convention 
held in Pennsylvania at the commencement of the Eevolution, 
distinguished for his opposition to the excise, having repeated- 
ly presided at the public meetings called to protest against it, 
was chosen president of the armed assembly. Albert Gallatin, 
the late rejected Senator,' was appointed secretary, Bradford, 
to whom everybody cringed, assumed the character of Major- 
General and reviewed the troops." The gathering, however, 
was a discomfiture to the wild men who had called it. It 
seemed to have had no specific objects, further than to inflame 
the military ardor of the people. 

The robbed mail had placed the insurrectionists in posses- 
sion of information regarding the " spies" in their midst. Most 
of these already had been expelled ; but, the meeting resolved 
upon exiling two more citizens of Pittsburg. The entire mob 
then marched into that city, were feasted by the people, and, 
after "a good drunk," disbanded — having done no serious 
harm. Only the more persistent of the mob remained in the 
field, resolved to punish Major Fitzpatrick, and, if possible, to 
seize the fort ; but, after a few days, they dispersed, having 
succeeded only in burning the Major's bara It was, unques- 
tionably, Bradford's design to excite the mob, to march upon 
Pittsburg, to seize the fort and munitions, and then to proclaim 
the "independence" of Western Pennsylvania. Against this 
Gallatin, Brackenridge and others protested, while the most 
responsible among the militia commanders positively refused 
to be jDarties to such a treasonable step. This temporarily frus- 
trated Bradford's ambitious scheme for the " secession" of the 
Western counties.* 

* Gallatin was chosen, by the " democratic" majority of the Pennsylvania Leg- 
islature, to the United States Senate (1794) but was denied his seat in the Senate 
owing to his ineligibility under the Constitution — being a foreigner of only eleven 
years' residence in the country. 

• The combined operations of the democratic societies and the French faction 
had, by this time, brought on a crisis in the affairs of the West. Kentucky stood 
ready to " secede," with a view of wresting from the Spaniards all their Louisiana 
possessions. The French previously had landed forces at St. Mary's, Florida, to 



218 THE WHISKEY INSURRECTION. 

There followed, however, a few days in which every excess 
was committed by the regulators against all persons suspected 
of disloyalty to the insmrectionary cause. Upon all sides, even 
into Western Maryland and Virginia, the lawless spirit spread. 
No citizen dared to condemn the recent proceedings nor to 
sustain the cause of the National Administration. Every 
remaining excise officer was expelled from the country, some 
being badly maltreated, their houses burned and their horses 
and cattle stolen. All law for the moment was suspended 
save the law of a mob : " democratic societies" were tasting the 
fruit of the tree which they had planted. 

Where was the Governor of Pennsylvania during these law- 
less proceedings ? the reader asks. Miflin, like Jefferson and 
Randolph, was an anti-Federalist, and, like them, doubted the 
propriety of enforcing submission. After the outrages just 
enumerated he issued a circular letter to the State officers in 
the disaffected region in which, after having expressed his in- 
dignation at the lawless proceedings, he enjoined them to exert 
their utmost authority to suppress the tumults and to punish 
the offenders. Of what use was such a mandate when all 
avenues of law were closed ? 

But, in General Knox, Secretary of War ; Alexander Ham- 
ilton, Secretary of the Treasury ; and William Bradford, then 
Attorney General, Washington found advisers equal to the 
emergency. These members of his Cabinet, aroused by the 
dangers of the crisis, earnestly advised the President to exer- 
cise his fullest powers in suppressing the insurrection before it 
became a revolution. Washington resolved to use his autho- 

Beize that colony and to add it to the Louisiana domain. A gigantic game of com- 
mingled impudence, fraud and treason, hatched by the French Minister, Genet, 
and sustained by the democratic and Jacobin associations of the Atlantic States, 
was then (in the Summer of 1794) just ready to burst upon the country, bringing 
in its train a war with Great Britain and a division of the Confederacy. The 
Whiskey Insurrection was part of this gigantic game ; and Bradford, by declaring 
the " independence" of Western Pennsylvania, only anticipated the events which 
he and his confederates conceived were sure to follow. Most fortunately for the 
country a President occupied the chair too incorruptible, too brave, too wise for 
the intrigues of foreign and domestic foes. He drew the sword and treason fled 
abashed. We devote a paper [see " The Conspiracy of Genet"] to the intrigues 
of the French Minister and his emissaries. 



Washington's firm course. 219 

rity to the utmost, to exact obedience to the laws. Governor 
Miflin, and Kandolph, Secretary of State, doubted his consti- 
tutional right to coerce the people, and prophesied the worst 
results from introducing the militia of other States into Penn- 
sylvania. But, the President's resolution was taken. The 
majesty of the National Government had been insulted, assail- 
ed and scorned : if there was any power in that Government 
to support its dignity the moment had arrived to assert it All 
constitutional quibbles and tender apprehensions of results 
were set aside ; only the great end to be attained was regarded. 
To enforce a compliance with the laws and an acknowledge- 
ment of the supremacy of the General Government was a duty 
imperative as the salvation of the country. It was a critical 
moment in the destiny of the republic — a sublime moment in 
the career of George Washington. 

Having become assured that Miflin could not, in his capa- 
city of Governor, suppress the revolt, Washington, acting un- 
der authority of the Militia Law of the session of 1791-92, and 
also by virtue of a special act of the session of 1793-94, ob- 
tained a certificate from one of the Supreme Judges that a 
state of insurrection existed in the Western counties too pow- 
erful for the judicial authorities to suppress. The statutory 
proclamation announcing this state of affairs, and requiring 
those in revolt to desist and disperse, was put forth Aug. 7th, 
followed by a requisition upon the Governors of Pennsylvania, 
Maryland, Virginia and New Jersey, for the aggregate of thir- 
teen thousand men (afterwards increased to fifteen thousand) 
— a force deemed sufficient to cope with the large body of in- 
surgents which it was presumed Bradford and his co-conspira- 
tors could summon to the field. Brackenridge and Gallatin, 
alarmed at this climax to their disloyal machinations against 
the General Government, sought, by all means, to prevent the 
consummation of Washington's programme. They were aided, 
so far as it was good policy to offer aid, by Eandolph, then 
Secretary of State' and Governor Miflin, though neither of 

» Jefferson retired from the Cabinet ofWashington at the close of the year 1793, 
and suggested Randolph, then Attorney General, as his successor. Eandolph wag 
thus nominated and William Bradford of Pennsylvania, became Attorney General. 



220 THE WHISKEY INSURRECTION. 

these auti-Federalist leaders cared to assume any opew justifiea- 
tion of the insurrectionists. Both were patriotic enough to 
desire no harm to the Federal Government, but were too soli- 
citous for popularity with the powerful democratic societies 
and with the French faction to give Washington's measures 
their unqualified endorsement* Eandolph laid before the 
Cabinet a letter from Brackenridge, to a " friend in Philadel- 
phia," in which it was assumed that the "Western counties were 
not only able to defend themselves but would, in all probabili- 
ty, be aided by the people east of the mountains, who would 
offer resistance to any march of Federal troops over their soil, 
to be used for coercing the people. The letter writer also al- 
luded to the possibility of an application to Great Britain for aid, 
and hinted at the idea of a march upon Philadelphia ! As 
Brackenridge was a leading actor in, and authority among, the 
democratic societies these confessions indicate quite clearly the 
disgusting disloj^alty at the bottom of these organizations. The 
letter, doubtless, wa^ written for Randolphs use in the Cabinet: 
how powerless it was even to modify Washington's purposes 
was soon evident. The militia were ordered to be rcadj^ to 
move by the first of September (1794). 

To exhaust every means of amicable settlement prior to a 
resort to arms, Washington had delegated (August 7th) three 
commissioners, to proceed in advance of the army, with dis- 
cretionary authority to effect a settlement of difficulties. U. S. 
Senator from Pennsylvania Eoss ; the Attorney General Brad- 
ford ; and Judge Yates, of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, 
constituted the commission. The time allowed for a settle- 
ment was up to September 14th, when, if an effectual submis- 
sion to the laws had not taken place, the military must assume 
the field. As coadjutors. Governor Miflin named Chief Justice 
McKean and General Irving, to act on the part of the State, 
with the Commissioners. The Governor also issued two pro- 
clamations — one convening the Legislature and one addressed 
to the insurgents, requiring them to submit to the laws and 

1 Jefferson afterwards complained, in a letter to Madison of Randolph's duplici- 
ty, averring that he gave to him (Jefferson) the shells and to Hamilton the oysters. 



CONVENTION AT PARKINSON'S FERRY. 221 

announcing his determination to obey the President's call for 
troops.' 

To return to the insurgents. The meeting at Mingo creek 
meeting house, it will be remembered, appointed a general 
convention of the townships of the four counties, to assemble 
at Parkinson's ferry, August 14th. The townships responded, 
with two exceptions. Delegates, to the number of two hun- 
dred and fifteen, were present at the appointed time. It was a 
very important gathering — composed largely of the most vio- 
lent faction, yet numbering many persons of influence who 
were resolved to bring matters to a peaceful settlement. Among 
this latter class were Gallatin and Brackenridge, both of whom 
were thoroughly alarmed at the portentous fortunes evidently 
in store for tliem. Judge Cook, president of the Mingo meet- 
ing, and Gallatin, secretary of that preliminary assemblage, 
were called to the same positions in this second convention, 
whose proceedings, if typified by the mottoes on the liberty 
pole, bid fair to be revolutionary enough. " No asylum for 
cowards and traitors ! " " Liberty and no excise ! " flaunted 
from the staff, over which floated the American flag. We may 
quote from Hildreth's lucid account ^ of the proceedings from 
this point : 

" A series of resolutions was oflfererl by Marshall, of which the first, 
against taking citizens out of the vicinity for trial, jDassed without ob- 
jection. The second resolution proi^osed the appointment of a commit- 
tee of public safety, empowered to ' call forth the resources of the West- 
ern country to repel any hostile attempts against the citizens.' After a 
speech, in which he denied any danger of hostilities, the only danger 
being that of legal coercion, Gallatin proposed to refer this resolution 
to a select committee. But, though there were many persons present whose 
chief object, like Gallatin's it was to extricate the peoijle from tlie dis- 
astrous consequences of a violent opposition to the laws, which they 
themselves had done so much to stimulate, no one dared to second the 
motion. Marshall, however, already began to waver; and he presently 

* The idea that he would not, beiug an anti-Federalist, obey the call was gene- 
rally entertained by the opponents of the Administration. The Governor was too 
loyal for such a course, much as he disliked Hamilton and his financial budget and 
Washington's executive views. 

* Hildreth'a " History of the United States of America," vol. i., second series, 
chapter vii. 



222 THE WHISKEY INSURRECTION. 

oflfered to withdraw the proposition, provided a committee of sixty was 
appointed, with power to call another meeting, This was readily agreed 
to, as was also the appointment of a sub-committee of fifteen, to confer 
with the Federal and State commissioners. For the purpose of being 
remodeled, the resolutions were referred to a committee, consisting of 
Bradford, Gallatin, Brackenridge and Herman Husbands, then a very 
old man, a leader formerly among the North Carolina 'Regulators.' The 
determination expressed in one of these resolutions, not to submit to the 
excise, was struck out on Gallatin's motion. But, neither he nor any 
body else went so far as to advocate obedience to it. A promise to 
submit to the State laws was, however, inserted. This business being 
disposed of, the exercise of some address secured a dissolution of the 
meeting, the assembly of the committee of sixty being fixed for the 2d 
of September. 

" A few days after, as had been arranged, the committee of fifteen 
met the commissioners at Pittsburg (Aug. 21). Among the members 
of this committee were Bradford, Marshall, Cook, Gallatin and Bracken- 
ridge, the whole, except Bradford, being inclined to an accommodation. 
[A CKindidate for Congress for the Pittsburg district, in his anxiety to 
secure votes, Brackenridge had hitherto gone so far as to make the in- 
surgents believe he was on their side. But, he was well aware of the 
folly and hopelessness of their cause, and at bottom was not less anx- 
ious than Gallatin to escape out of the present dilemma. In a book 
which he afterwards published, he excused the part he had taken as 
necessary to protect himself against the violence of the insurgents.] The 
demands of the commissioners were exceeding moderate. They requir- 
ed from the committee of sixty an explicit declaration of their determi- 
nation to submit to the laws, and a recommendation to the citizens at 
large to submit also, and to abstain from all opposition, direct or indi- 
rect, and especially from violence or threats against the excise ofiicers 
or the complying distillers. Primary meetings were required to be 
held to test the sense of the citizens in these particulars. Should satis- 
factory assurances be given on or before the fourteenth of September, 
the commissioners promised a suspension till the next July of all pro- 
secutions for ofi'ences prior in date to this arrangement ; and, in case 
the law, during that interval, should be generally complied with, in 
good faith, a final pardon and oblivion of all such offenses. 

" The committee of fifteen pronounced these terms reasonable ; and, 
to give more time to carry out the arrangement, they agreed to antici- 
pate by four days the calling together of the committee of sixty. Mean- 
while a report spread that the conferees had been bribed ; indeed, that 
charge was made in express terms in a letter of ' Tom the Tinker' to the 
Pittsburg Gazette, which the printer, as was the case with other com- 
munications of that anonymous personage, did not dare to omit to pub- 



DOINGS OF THE CONVENTION. 223 

lish. WTiile the members of the committee of sixty were collecting at 
Brownsville, the place appointed for the meeting, an armed party of 
hoi^e and foot entered the town with drums beating. The friends of 
submission were so intimidated that, but for Gallatin, they would have 
aliandoned all thoughts of urging an accommodation. Bradford insist- 
ed on taking the question at once : but, by the exercise of some address, 
the matter was postponed till the next day ; meanwhile the armed party 
were persuaded to return to their homes. 

" Gallatin opened the business the next morning in a speech, in which 
the motives to submission were judiciously urged. He was followed by 
Brackenridge, who now came out strongly on the same side. Bradford, 
in an extravagant harangue, urged continued resistance, and the organ- 
ization of an independent State. Not daring to expose themselves by 
an open vote, the friends of submission had prevailed that the decision 
should be by secret ballot. They were thus enabled "to carry, by a very 
lean majority, a resolution that it would be for the interest of the peo- 
ple to accede to the terms offered by the commissioners. But, they did 
not dare to propose what the commissioners had demanded, a pledge 
from the members of the committee themselves to submit to the law, 
and arrangements for obtaining, in primary meetings, a like pledge 
from the individual citizens. After appointing a new committee of 
conference, the committee of sixty adjourned without day. 

"The new conferees asked of the commissioners, Sept. 1, further delay 
till the 10th of October, to ascertain the sense of the people ; but, this 
was declined as being beyond their authority. They now required that 
meetings should be held in the several townships on the eleventh of 
September, any two or more members of the late committee of sixty, or 
any justice of the peace to preside, at which the citizens should vote yea 
or nay on the question of submitting to and supporting the law, all 
those voting in the aflBrmative to sign a declaration to that effect, which 
was to secure them an amnesty as to past offenses. The third day after 
the vote, the presiding officers were to assemble in their respective 
county court houses, to ascertain the number of votes both ways, and 
to declare their opinion in writing whether the submission was so gen- 
eral that excise inspection offices could be re-established with safety ; all 
the papers to be forwarded to the commissioners at Union Town by the 
sixteenth of the month. 

"Meetings were held under this arrangement in many of the town- 
ships, but the result, on the whole, was quite unsatisfactory. Most of 
the more intelligent leaders were careful to provide for their own safety 
by signing the required submission ; but many of those who had taken 
no active part in resisting the law refused to attend, or to pledge them- 
selves to obedience. As they had committed no offense, such was their 
argument, they ought not to be required to submit — as if winking at 
28 



224 THE "WHISKEY INSURRECTION". 

the violation of law and neglecting to assist in its enforcement were not 
among the greatest of offenses ! In some townshijDs the meetings were 
violently broken up and the ijajjers torn to pieces. Such was the case 
in the town in which Findley resided, who, it seems, was personally in 
suited on the occasion. From Allegany county no returns were receiv- 
ed. The judges of the vote in Westmoreland expressed the opinion 
that excise iusjiection offices could not be safely established in that 
county. In the other two counties the exj^ression of any direct oijinion 
was avoided; but these counties had always been more violent than 
"Westmoreland. The better disposed part of the population had begun 
to form associations for mutual defense, and the opinion among them 
was quite universal that the presence of the troops was absolutely 
necessary." 

This result of their mission left the President no other course 
than to use the strong arm of military power. The troops re- 
quired had been furnished with alacrity, by the several Gov- 
ernors. Those from Pennsylvania were last in the field. The 
Legislature had offered bounties for volunteers, while Miflin 
made the tour of the lower counties — then the most populous 
in the State — where, by his remarkable popular eloquence, he 
soon obtained recruits enough to fill his quota. None were 
more astonished than the " democratic societies" to see the 
Governor thus "up in arms against his own people and party," 
But, the shrewd Governor was as patriotic as politic, and 
chose the right course at the right moment. The old war-horse 
of the Eevolution, General Daniel Morgan, led the Virginia 
forces ; General William Smith, then a member of Congress 
from Baltimore, led those of Maryland. These two latter 
bodies composed the " left wing" of the army, and assembled 
at Cumberland, Maryland, from whence they were to mo\ e 
across the mountains by Braddock's road. The troops of Penn- 
sylvania and New Jersey, composing the " right wing", and led 
by Governors Miflin and Howell, rendezvoused at Bedford. 
The Command-in-Chief was given to Governor Henry Lee of 
Virginia — "Light-Horse Harry" of the Eevolution. Washing- 
ton and Hamilton also determined to proceed with the army. 

This formidable assertion of authority sent consternation 
into the ranks of the insurgents — few of whom cared to court 
the ordeal of blood to defend their right to free whiskey. But, 
prior to the actual appearance of the troops in the field, many 



RETURNING LOYALTY. 225 

evidences of the "tinkers" became visible, even to the east of 
tlie mountains. At Carlisle the two Pennsylvania commission- 
ers had stopped, to require bonds of a party who had run up 
a barrel of whiskey on the liberty pole, as an insult and a me- 
nace to the commission. The Judge and the General had 
scarcely left town when a large body of armed men rode into 
Carlisle to capture the two commissioners. Finding them gone, 
the mob proceeded to burn them in efl&gy, and gave many 
other evidences of the existence of " democratic societies" in 
that section. Similar feeling betrayed itself in several counties 
of Maryland, but it was suppressed by a volunteer corps of 
dragoons, who seized and imprisoned in the Hagerstown jail 
more than a hundred of the malcontents. 

But, these spasms of the disease were of brief duration. The 
desire for peace became so strong that a second convention was 
called, by the efforts of Gallatin, Brackenridge and Findley, at 
Parkinson's Ferry, Oct. 2d, at which the declaration was made 
that the failure to obtain written pledges, as stipulated by the 
commissioners, was owing chiefly to the want of time and of 
information. The mass of voters, it was stated, assuming their 
innocence of any hostile acts against the Government, argued 
that to sign the required pledge was an implication of the ex- 
istence of their guilt which they could not consent to sustain. 
Hence, the failure of the commissioners' proposals. This de- 
claration and other messages of contrition were confided by the 
assembly to Findley and a person named Eedick, who were 
ordered to hasten over the mountains, to stay, if possible, the 
march of the army against the Western counties. The two 
delegates lost not a moment in their embassy. They met the 
right wing of the Federal forces at Carlisle, where Washington 
then was. The President received the embassadors but failed 
to accept their proffers of peace. He advised Findley to re- 
turn and reassemble the convention, that, if a settlement really 
was desired, the insurrectionists might have it by sueing in 
proper terms and by giving full assurances of entire submis- 
sion to the laws. The troops were ordered forward to the ren- 
dezvous at Bedford, where, the President stated, he would re- 
ceive the expected answer of the convention. 



226 THE WHISKEY INSURRECTION". 

Findley, inspired witli the zeal of fear, succeeded in exciting 
a like apprehension among all of the most intelligent of those 
who had participated in the insurrection, or who had affiliated 
with the democratic societies. The convention reassembled 
October 24tk " Eesolutions were passed," said Hildreth, "de- 
claring the competency of the civil authorities to enforce the 
laws, recommending all delinquents who had not already se- 
cured an indemnity to surrender for trial, and expressing the 
conviction that offices of inspection might be opened with safe- 
ty, and that the excise duties would be paid. Findley hasten- 
ed back with these resolutions, but before he reached the army 
the President had already returned to Philadelphia. Hamil- 
ton, however, remained behind, and was believed to act as the 
President's deputy. The troops crossed the Alleganies in a 
heavy rain, up to their knees in mud, and not without severe 
suffering, which occasioned in the end a good many deaths. 
The two wings formed a junction at Union Town, and, as they 
advanced into the disaffected counties, the re-establishment of 
the authority of the law became complete. Having arrived at 
Parkinson's Ferry, Lee issued a proclamation, Nov. 8th, con- 
firming the amnesty to those who had entitled themselves to 
it, and calling upon all the inhabitants to take the oath of al- 
legiance to the United States. 

" A few days after, arrangements having been previously 
made for it, there was a general seizure, by parties detached 
for that purpose, of persons supposed to be criminally concern- 
ed in the late transactions. But, as those against whom the 
strongest evidence existed had either fled the country or taken 
advantage of the amnesty, this seizure fell principally on per- 
sons who, without taking an active part, had been content with 
encouraging and stimulating others. Many were dismissed at 
once for want of evidence ; and of those who were bound over 
for trial at Philadelphia, the greater part were afterwards 
acquitted. Among those thus bound over, Brackenridge 
was one ; but, instead of being tried, he was used as a wit- 
ness against the others. These people complained loudly 
of the inconvenience to which they had been put, and of the 
harsh treatment which, in some few cases, had been experi- 



THE DEMOCRATIC SOCIETIES. 227 

enced at the hands of the military parties by whom the arrests 
had been made. But, such evils were only the natural conse- 
quences of lying quietly by and allowing resistance to the laws 
to aggravate itself into rebellion." 

Morgan, with a portion of the Virginia troops remained in 
the disaffected region during the winter, as a military guard to 
secure implicit obedience to the laws. Of those seized, as in 
the case of those implicated in Shays' Eebellion, none were 
made to answer with their lives for their crime against the 
Government. The great maj ority were found guilty of treason, 
upon trial before the Circuit Court at Philadelphia ; but, ex- 
ercising his prerogative of pardon, Washington ultimately 
bade even those most guilty to "go, and sin no more." 

This insurrection illustrated two things, namely — first, the 
revolutionary nature of all asserted rights of a State in contra- 
distinction with, and as supreme to, the rights of the Union ; and, 
second, the power of the National Executive to enforce the 
National laws. The country breathed more freely ; the cause 
of the Constitution became more fixed ; the assumed suprema- 
cy of the State retreated to the background, only to be occa- 
sionally dragged forth by malcontents, nullificators and seces- 
sionists, for the same end as in 1794 — for humiliating the Na- 
tional authority. Could the country always be blessed with a 
President as wise as George "Washington it would have but 
little to apprehend from the element of insurrection which, 
confounding liberty with license, has become one of the fixed 
&cts in our democratic society. 

I 



Note. — Reference has been made, in this paper to the connection of the " demo- 
cratic societies' " affiliation with the Jacobinical faction existent in this country 
after the advent of Genet, Minister from the " Republic" of Prance to the United 
States, April, 1793 ; also to the intercepted dispatch of M. Fauchet, successor of Ge- 
net. Some little light will be thrown upon the history of 1794 by a further refer- 
ence to thrs dispatch of Fauchet, to the Commissioner of Foreign Relations, dated 
October Slst, 1794. This minister, having succeeded Genet, inherited much of that 
intermeddler's contempt for the Federal Government. As an intriguant he was 
more subtle, less impudent but not less unscrupulous. He was at once a spy and 
an agent to create a division among our people, by which to advance the interests 
of France— then still in the throes of ita ever memorable revolution. The dispatch 



228 THE "WHISKEY INSURRECTION". 

alluded to -was caught in transitu on the " Jean Bart," a French privateer, over- 
hauled in the British Channel by a British frigate. According to instructions the 
dispatch box was cast into the sea, when its capture became imminent ; but, an 
Englishman — a captain of a merchantman captured by the " Jean Bart" — suspect- 
ing the character of the contents, leaped overboard and sustained the box uutil it 
was secured by a boat from the frigate. The important and interesting nature of 
the dispatch caused the British Government to send it to their minister to the 
United States, by whom it was brought to the attention of the Administration. 
That the disclosure astonished and angered Washington is not strange. The Presi- 
dent, though aware of the incendiary nature of French influence, was not prepared 
to learn that a member of his own Cabinet was in league with the anarchical fac- 
tion, and plotting for his (Washington's) humiliation. We quote from the docu- 
ment such passages as throw light upon the secret influences at work, during the 
early stages of the Republic, to unsettle the public mind and to plunge the country 
into a foreign war. Fauchet wrote : 

" Citizen — 1. The measures which prudence prescribes to me to take with re- 
spect to my colleagues, have still presided in the digesting of the dispatches signed 
by them, which treat of the insurrection of the western countries, and of the re- 
pressive means adopted by the Government. I have allowed them to be confined 
to the giving of a faithful, but naked recital of events. The reflections therein 
contained scarcely exceed the conclusions easily deducible from the character 
assumed by the public prints. I have reserved myself to give you, as far as I am 
able, a key to the facts detailed in our reports. When it comes in question to 
explain, either by conjectures or by certain data, the secret views of a foreign 
government, it would be imprudent to run the risk of indiscretions, and to give 
one's self up to men, whose known partiality for that government, and similitude 
of passions and interests with its chiefs, might lead to confidences, the issue of 
which is incalculable. Besides, the precious confessions of Mr. Randolph alone 
throw a satisfactory light upon every thing that comes to pass. These I have not 
yet communicated to my colleagues. The motives already mentioned lead to this 
reserve, and still less permit me to open myself to them at the present moment. 
I shall then endeavor. Citizen, to give you a clew to all the measures, of which the 
common dispatches give you an account, and to discover the true causes of the ex- 
plosion, which it is obstinately resolved to repress with great means, although the 
state of things has no longer any thing alarming. 

" 2. To confine the present crisis to the simple question of the excise, is to reduce 
it far below its true scale ; it is indubitably connected with a general explosion for 
some time prepared in the public mind, but which this local and precipitate erup- 
tion will cause to miscarry, or at least check for a long time. In order to see the 
real cause, in order to calculate the effect and the consequences, we must ascend 
to the origin of the parties existing in the State, and retrace their progress." 

He then proceeds to show that the " parties" existing are Federalists and anti- 
Federalists — the first aiming to monarchm the Government and the latter to demo- 
cratise it. The explosion of the Whiskey Insurrection he declared had heea pre- 
mature ; unfortunately for the latter class it had served only to strengthen the Ad- 
ministration. Monsieur then descants upon Hamilton's financial schemes, which 
he assumed were but gigantic stock-jobbing, creating an aristocracy of speculatori 
eapecially antagonistic to the agricultural interests of the country*. In these fiuan- 



RANDOLPH AND THE FRENCHMAN. 229 

cial projects the emissary of Robespierre beheld the further fruition of aristocratic 
ideas. He proceeds in his luminous essay : 

"8. In the mean time, the popular societies are formed;* political ideas con- 
centrate themselves ; the patriotic party unite, and more closely connect them- 
Belves ; they gain a formidable majority in the Legislature ; the abasement of 
commerce, the slavery of navigation, and the audacity of England strengthen it; 
a concert of declarations and censures against the government arises, at which the 
latter is even itself astonished." 

After elaborating on the discontent prevailing, upon the enormity of the ofiFenses 
of the party in power, the minister recurs to the excise revolt as a further evidence 
of the tjTanny of the Government and of its unjust impositions. He adds : 

" But why, in contempt of treaties, are they left to bear the yoke of the feeble 
Spaniard, as to the Mississippi for upwards of twelve years? Since when has an 
agricultural people submitted to the most unjust capricious law of a people explor- 
ers of the precious metals ? Might we not suppose that Madrid and Philadelphia 
mutually assisted in prolonging the slavery of the river; that the proprietors of a 
barren coast are afraid lest the Mississippi, once opened, and its numerous branch- 
es brought into activity, their fields might become deserts ; and, in a word, that 
commerce dreads ha\ing rivals in those interior parts as soon as their inhabitants 
Bhall cease to be subjects ? This last supposition is but too well founded ; an in- 
fluential member of the Senate, Mr. Izard, one day in conversation undisguisedly 
announced it to me." 

It is unnecessary to follow the loquacious intriguant through all his allusions and 
illusions. That portion which most interests our readers we subjoin : 

" It appears, therefore, that these men, with others unknown to me, all having 
without doubt Randolph at their head, were balancing to decide on their party. 
Two or three days before the proclamation was published, and of course before 
the Cabinet had resolved on its measures, Mr. Randolph came to see me with an 
air of great eagerness, and made to me the overtures, of which I have given you 
an account in my No. 6. Thus, with some thousands of dollars, the republic could 
have decided on civil war or peace ! Thus the consciences of the pretended patri- 
ots of America have already their price ! It is very true that the certainty of 
these conclusions, painful to be drawn, will forever exist in our archives. What 
will be the old age of this Government, if it is thus early decrepid ?" 

Dispatch " No. 6" referred to did not help Mr. Randolph's case, nor serve to 
create additional sympathy for the democratic societies. It was written in August, 
and, according to Pauchet's owu confessions afterwards extorted in Randolph's de- 
fense, contained the following piece of news : 

" Scarce was the commotion known (i. e. the uprising in the West during July 
and August, 1794) when the Secretary of State (Randolph) came to ray house. 
All his countenance was grief. He requested of me a private conversation. ' It 
is all over,' he said to me : 'a civil war is about to ravage our unhappy country. 
Four men, by their talents, their influence, their energy, may save it. But, debt- 
ors of English merchants, they will be deprived of their liberty if they take the 

1 Formed by Genet, predecessor of Fauchet. Dallas, Secretary of the State of 
Pennsylvania, was at the head of them, and was the principal agent in their for- 
mation. 



230 THE WHISKEY INSURRECTION. 

smallest step. Could yoa lend them instantaneous funds to shelter them from 
English persecution!' This inquiry, the dispatch continued, astonished me. It 
was impossible for me to render a satisfactory answer. You knowing my want of 
power, and my defect of pecuniary means, I shall withdraw myself from the afiiiir 
by some common place remarks, and by throwing myself on the pure and disin- 
terested principles of the republic." 

" Four men by their talents may save it." Who were they ? Miflin, Dallas, 
Randolph and Jefferson ! 

A precious mass of evidence, truly, to come to light at that crisis, when Wash- 
ington, by the happy issue of his proceedings against the malcontents— by the in- 
creased confidence felt in public credit — was more than ever trusted. " Jefferson, 
on whom the patriots cast their eyes to succeed the President * * prudently retired, 
&c." And Mr. Bandolph also " prudently retired," when Washington placed the 
dispatch in the hands of his until then trusted adviser for explanations. Randolph 
retired from the Cabinet, not like Jefferson " in order to avoid making a figure 
against his inclinations," but to write out his Vindication, to become the enemy 
of George Washington and the adviser of " the patriots" who were " casting their 
eyes" toward Jefferson as Washington's successor. 

In Randall's " Life of Jefferson," vol. ii., chapters iii., iv., v., will be found the 
best presentment yet made of the anti-Federalist view of the " Whiskey War" and 
the aff\iir of the Fauchet dispatch. Mr. Randall's defense of the democratic socie- 
ties, and his chief points of exculpation of Mr. Jefferson for the part he played in 
fomenting the public disquietude, rest upon the absurd assumption of the monar- 
chical tendency of the Federal party. The biographer evidently proceeds upon the 
theory that, because Jefferson hated Hamilton therefore it is necessary for Jeffer 
Bon's biographer to believe every suspicion hatched in the Virginian's fierce parti* 
zan brain. 



THE CONSPIRACY OF M. GENET. 



French intrigue in the United States during the early ad- 
ministrations enters largely into the history of that period. In 
fact, it ramified through the entire structure of our Government 
and our society, being at once the cause of alarm among Fed- 
eralists and the source of partisan strength to their opponents. 
To Washington it became a constant agent of unhappiness ; 
to his successor, Adams, it contributed one unceasing flow of 
mortifying and aggravating circumstances ; to Jefferson it of- 
fered less annoyance simply because he was of the French par- 
ty, because the question of neutrality had been settled by 
Washington and Adams, and because another object of the in- 
trigue — the dispossession of Spain in the Louisiana territory — 
was quieted by the cession of that territory to Napoleon and 
its purchase by the United States' Government ; to Madison it 
only ruffled the surface of affairs, though the pressure of the 
French faction had much to do in drawing this country into the 
war against Great Britain in 1812-14 

France having contributed by arms and means to the inde- 
pendence of the American States, her ministers to this country 
assumed a creditor's right in the premises, acting arrogatingly 
to our Government and patronizingly to the people. Even 
before the adoption of the Constitution the seeds of French 
disquietude appeared in our midst. Jefferson, when Minister 
to France, contributed to the overthrow of Louis XVI. — the 
Monarch whose benefactions had sustained the Colonies in their 
struggle against British tyranny ; he became a coadjutor of the 
revolutionists, opening his doors freely to the Jacobins and 
agents of Condorcet His sympathy was repeated among a 
29 



232 CONSPIRACY OF GENET. 

large class on this side of the sea, who entered into the foreign 
revolution with more than the ardor of friends — with the fren- 
zy of partizans ; and when " Citizen Genet" came to this coun- 
try, in April, 1793, as the accredited representative of the 
French "Eepublic," then under the reign of the Girondius, he 
found such a welcome as scarcely could have been extended 
to Lafayette' had he reappeared on our shores. He landed at 
Charleston, S. G, April 9th, 1793, where his reception was en- 
thusiastic on the part of the State authorities and the people ; 
his journey to Philadelphia was one continued ovation. The 
country was then aglow with hopes of liberty for Europe which 
the French revolution had excited. In that revolution they 
beheld a regeneration of society and of governments ; hence, 
notwithstanding its phases of horror, infidelity and brutal ex- 
cesses, it was regarded as the messenger of a new order of things. 
Genet arrived on our shores to find France the guest of Amer^ 
lean homes, from the seaboard to the frontier. He was f^ted, 
not as the man but as the Minister from the regenerated na- 
tion. 

With his coming came trouble indeed to the adminis- 
tration of Washington. Scarcely had Genet arrived in Charles- 
ton and received the ovations of Governor Moultrie and his 
people, ere he began the issue of commissions, for privateers, to 
American citizens. France having declared war against Great 
Britain, Genet was instructed, it afterwards appeared, to draw 
this country into co-operation with its old ally against its old 
foe. The Convention had proceeded, with singular indiffer- 
ence to American rights, to clothe their representative with 
extraordinary powers. He not only commissioned American 
citizens, but at once authorised French consuls throughout 
the United States to constitute themselves a court of admiralty 
for adjudicating upon such prizes as French cruizers, or those 
operating under his commissions, might bring into American 
ports ! This subhme assurance ere long was aggravated by 

* Lafayette was then a fugitive from France. As the head of the army he had 
protested against the reign of terror and Jacobinical overthrow of the Constitu- 
tion. He had to flee before the storm and soon found himself in an Austrian dun- 
geon — a victim of the Jacobinical societies, 



THE ITEUTRALITT PROCLAMATION. 233 

Genet's continued refractoriness, until, at length, he presumed 
to despise and defy "Washington's authority and threatened to 
appeal from him to the people ! He actually menaced the Ex- 
ecutive with threats of a revolution, if his (Genet's) proceed- 
ings were countermanded. The emissary should have been 
sent in chains to France, 

News arrived in New York of the declaration of war by 
France against Great Britain five days prior to the French 
minister's appearance in Charleston. This news gave Wash- 
ington much uneasiness. He hastened from Mt. Yemon to 
Philadelphia, summoning a Cabinet council, determined to 
place this country in an attitude of strict neutrality. Such an 
attitude, in the face of the powerful sympathy existing in all 
the States for France and hate of Great Britain, was calculated 
to excite Gallic partizans fiercely. The decree of neutrality 
issued April 22d, 1793, to find anything but a favorable recep- 
tion at the hands of those fiiendly to the revolutionists. The 
proclamation warned citizens to avoid all acts not in consonance 
with an im-partial neutrality toward the belligerents ; declaring 
the resolution of the Federal Government not only " not to in- 
terpose on behalf of those who might expose themselves to 
punishment or forfeiture under the law of nations by aiding 
or abetting either of the belligerents, but to cause all such acts 
done within the jurisdiction of the United States to be prose- 
cuted in the proper courts." Genet's proceedure in issuing 
commissions, and in constituting prize courts, was, therefore, 
in contempt of the Administration ; but, sustained by a pow- 
erful section of society, a thorough enthusiast in defying all 
"tyranny" (and every step taken to circumvent his machina- 
tions was regarded as a ' tyrannical assumption of authority') 
reckless of results, the apostle of revolution pursued his auda- 
cious game without ceasing. Scarcely a day passed in which 
some act was not committed calculated to annoy the National 
authorities. 

Bat, we cannot here trace the course of this madcap, in all 
its diplomatic and undiplomatic windings. The record of his 
intrigues, his audacity, his impertinence, his folly would fill a 
volume. To one immediate result of his labors we may recur. 



234: CONSPIRACY OF GENET. 

In the Philadelphia National Gazette^ edited by Philip Freneau, 
clerk in the State Department, Genet and the " opposition" 
found a most available instrument of incendiarism and disaf- 
fection. Previous to the arrival of the French embassador it 
had been distinguished for its "war on the monocrats," as Jef 
ferson approvingly termed it, and day by day grew in viru- 
lence toward the Administration in whose employ he remained. 
His aim was especially to shake confidence in Hamilton's 
financial measures and to alarm the people of the monarchical 
tendencies of the Government. Washington, as the head of 
Government, was not spared. His name and measures were 
traduced ; his integrity questioned ; his devotion to liberty 
derided. So virulent became its course after the arrival of 
Genet, that the President, in an interview with the Secretary 
of State, insmuated that Freneau ought to be discharged from 
Government employ, not alone because of his base defamation 
of the Administration, but for the additional reason that, in 
his position as translating clerk, Freneau obtained much secret 
and valuable information which he used to the detriment of 
the State The malignant journalist was not discharged nev- 
ertheless. " That^ I would not do," said Jefferson in his 'Ana" 
of confidential disclosures published after his decease. His 
excuse was that the Gazette had saved the Constitution, then 
in danger of subversion by the monarchists ! [If Jefferson 
sincerely loved Washington, as we have every reason to be- 
lieve he did, must it therefore be said that he showed his 
greater love for his country in keeping Washington's libeller 
in his employ and confidence because Freneau had "saved the 
Constitution"? If Jefferson's biographers will insist upon this 
construction they must accept the inevitable conclusion, i. e.: 
that Washington was one of the enemies of the Constitution. 
This bare inference, now that we have the full light of history 
upon those times — times which, even more than the seven 
years' war, 'tried men's souls' — proves how absurd were Jef- 
ferson's " apprehensions" regarding the monarchical sympathies 
of his adversaries.] 

Washington's great sin was in throwing his august influence 
across the path of the disintegrators of society and government, 



INTRIGUES or THE MINISTER. 235 

tlien as now known as the champions of State Rights ; and 
when he sought to repress the spirit of license and French infi- 
delity which threatened all order and law with destruction, he 
committed, in the eyes of these " champions of the people," an 
outrage too great for forgiveness/ 

The Frenchman's gold flowed freely in all channels where 
it could breed corruption. He sought and obtained advances 
from the United States Government on the debt due to France 
— all of which he disbursed with the power and irresponsibility 
of an Emperor. Jacobin clubs flourished ; democratic socie- 
ties spread like a leprosy on the body politic ; "opposition 
journals," cherished and fostered by the French partizans, and 
countenanced by the faction inimical to Hamilton's financial 
measures, soon joined their influence to hurry the country into 
a war with Great Britain. Neutrality was assailed with un- 
ceasing rancor and " Federal usurpation" was a term of con- 
stant use. 

In all of this storm of passion, prejudice and folly, Genet 
rode, the master spirit. His influence was supreme. He was 
the Eolus who tapped the mountain and loosed the winds, 
which, witb omnipotent enthusiasm, he conceived were to 
sweep away all opposition. Disgusted, annoyed and alarmed 
at the marplot's power for mischief, Washington at length de- 
termined to rid the country of his presence. To this end he 
succeeded in obtaining from his Cabinet an assent to his wish 

* Washington took these persecutions calmly though at times he expressed his 
annoyance at their insolence. So long as he continued in office they did not 
cease. Freneau aud his echoes, thoroughly demoralized by their anarchical prin- 
ciples, left no stone unturned to give the great and good man pain. As late as 
1796, writing to Jefferson of these ' democratic' persecutions, he said : 

" Accused of being the enemy of America, and subject to the influence of a for- 
eign country, and to prove which every act of my administration is tortured, and 
the grossest and most insidious misrepresentations of them made by giving one 
side only of a subject, and that too in such exaggerated and indecent terms as 
could be scarcely applied to a negro, to a notorious defaulter, or even to a com- 
mon pickpocket." 

It has been the fortune of many eminent men to be thus calumniated by those 
iucapable of appreciating virtue and unselfish patriotism. That Washington did 
not escape is to encourage others less august to continue in well doing even 
against the aspersions of their generation : history will do them justice. 



236 CONSPIRACY OF GENET. 

for Genet's recal. Jefferson, Minister of State, was called upoa 
to prepare the papers in the case and did so with great gocjd 
judgment, forwarding to the French Assembly documenta 
setting.,forth the irregularity of the embassador's conduct in 
such terms as, eventually, effected the purpose required. Genel 
was recalled in January, 1794. 

Pending an answer to this demand for his recal the inde- 
fatigable revolutionist set on foot two expeditions — one for the 
conquest of Florida, organized in South Carolina, and one for 
the conquest of New Orleans, organized in Kentucky. Gov- 
ernment was soon apprised of these criminal enterprises, which 
seemed to excel in insolence all previous craft of the French 
Conspirator. It was ascertained that four agents of Genet had 
gone West and South, late in the year 1793, to carry out his 
projects of conquest. These men were empowered to give 
commissions, to enlist men, to make contracts for supplies, and, 
in event of success, even to make terms with the Spanish au- 
thorities. In the renowned George Eogers Clarke the Conspi- 
rator found, unfortunately for that patriot's memory, a man to 
lead the Kentucky army of invasion. Says his biographer : 

" The insolent Frenchman, Genet — supported, it must be confessed, 
by some of our own statesmen high in station — attempted to establish 
a proconsulshii) in the United States, and to reduce our country to the 
rank of a mere satellite of the French Republic, George Rogers Clarke 
accepted at his hand a commission of Major-General in the armies of 
France, and Commander-in-Chief of an expedition to be organized in 
violation of the laws of his country, and in defiance of the jDroclamation 
of Washington, for the purpose of attaching the Spanish provinces in 
the South. A proclamation, which, it is to be hoped, was not Clarke's 
composition, was issued in his name, offering the plunder of an inoffensive 
people as a bribe to the reckless adventurers of the West to enlist under 
the tri-colored flag. A counter-revolution in France, however, saved 
Clarke from the disgrace of carrying out this programme, and merging 
the character of a patriot soldier in that of a filibustering adventurer. 
The party that had been raised to power in Paris by the revolution of 
Thermidor disavqwed all the acts of Genet and his agents, and annulled 
the commissions granted by him; and Clarke again sank back into 
the obscurity from which he had thus been for a short time elevated." 

This is but an unsatisfactory reference to that interesting 
era in Kentucky history. The same writer says truly : "Ken- 



GOVEENOR Shelby's reply. 237 

tucky was at that time, a liot bed of intrigues and intriguers. 
We do not believe a country can be named whose history re- 
veals such an amount of secret and underhand dealing. Her 
whole early history, between the year 1783 and the breaking 
out of the late war with England, consists, when closely ex- 
amined, of one perplexing mass of secret machinations and 
treasonable and dishonorable intrigues. One of the most 
deeply implicated in many of these was that political and mili- 
tary Proteus, General James Wilkinson, whose character and 
career is even yet a mystery." 

When made aware of these filibustering devices Washing- 
ton acted promptly for their suppression. In reference to that 
against New Orleans, Jefferson, as Secretary of State, at once 
was directed by Washington to communicate with the Govern- 
or of Kentucky (Isaac Shelby), desiring him to use all lawful 
means for obstructing and preventing the expedition ; while 
General Knox, Secretary of War, also wrote to say that, if 
such preventive means should fail, it was the President's wish 
that effectual military force should be employed to stay the 
expedition. The Governor's reply to the communications il- 
lustrates the turbulent and independent spirit which animated 
the Western people. While, in convention assembled, they 
had not hesitated to demand of Congress, in language both in- 
decorous and dictatorial, the immediate and unconditional 
opening of the Mississippi river (then controlled by Spanish 
possession of its mouth), they had not refrained to show their 
contempt of the General Government by threats of secession, 
by encouraging, in their midst, the spirit of sedition and by 
aiding, openly, the several conspiracies hatched for the dismem- 
berment of the Union and the erection of a new power in the 
West. Governor Shelby, after confessing his knowledge of 
the expedition against New Orleans, said : 

" I have great doubts, even if they do not attempt to carry their plan 
into execution, (provided they manage their business with prudence,) 
whether there is any legal authority to restrain or punish them, at least 
before they have actually accomplished it : for, it is lawful for any one 
citizen of this State to leave it— it is equally so for any number of them 
to do it. It is also lawful to carry with them any quantity of provisions, 
arms, ammunition, and if the act is lawful in itself, there is nothing but 



238 CONSPIRACY OF GENET. 

the particular intention with which it is done, that can make it unlaw- 
ful. But I know of no law which inflicts a punishment on intention 
only; or any criterion by which to decide what would be sufficient 
evidence of that intention, if it was a jiroper subject for legal censure. 

" I shall, uj)on all occasions, be averse to the exercise of any power 
which I do not consider myself as clearly and explicitly invested with ; 
much less would I assume power to exercise it against men whom I con- 
cider as friends and brethren, in favor of a man whom I view as an 
enemy and a tyrant. I shall also feel but little inclination to take an 
active part in punishing or restraining any of my fellow citizens for a 
sui^posed intrusion only, to gratify or remove the fears of the Minister 
of a Prince who ojienly withholds from us an invaluable right, and who 
secretly instigates against us a most savage and cruel enemy."^ 

From the hour of Wilkinson's appearance among them the 
people of the Western territories had cherished ideas of inde- 
pendence and empire not in consonance with loyalty to the 
Union and the Constitution ; and when the agents of Genet 
were made to play upon their passions and their lust for do- 
minion they were less inclined than- ever to submit to orders 
from the departments of the National Government. To show 
the extent and motive of the intrigues instigated by the Minis- 
ter we may recur to the address of the Jacobin club of Phila- 
delphia, in January, 1794, directed to the inhabitants of Lou- 
isiana. It was headed : 

"liberty, equality. 

" The Freemen of France to their Brothers in Louisiana : 
"2d year of the French Kepublic." 

These "Freemen of France" comprised many American citi- 
zens, although members of that Jacobin club. The address, in im- 
passioned language, strove to stir up revolution against Spanish 
domination. It encouraged the idea of complete independence 
and empire. We quote its close : 

" You quiver, no doubt, with indignation ; you feel in your hearts the 
desire of deserving the honorable appellation of Freemen, but the fear 
of not being assisted and of failing in your attempt deadens your zeal. 
Dismiss such apprehensions : know ye, that your brethren the Freruch, 
who have attacked with success the Spanish Government in Europe, 

* How nearly this corresponds in sentiment to the language of the Governor of 
Kentucky in April, 1861, in answer to the President's call for troops to suppress 
insurrection 1 



ADDRESS OF THE JACOBINS. 239 

will in a short time present themselves on your coasts with naval forces ; 
that the republicans of the Western portion of the United States are 
ready to come down the Ohio and Mississippi in company with a con- 
siderable number of French rei^ublicans, and to rush to your assistance 
under the banners of France and Liberty ; and that you have every as- 
surance of success. Therefore, inhabitants of Louisiana, show who you 
are ; prove that you have not been stupified by despotism, and that you 
have retained in your breasts French valor and intrepidity ; demonstrate 
that you are worthy of being free and independent, because we do not 
solicit you to unite yourselves with us, but to seek your own freedom, 
when you shall have the sole control of your actions, you will be able 
to adopt a republican constitution, and being assisted by France so long 
as your weakness will not permit you to protect or defend yourselves, 
it will be in your power to unite voluntarily with her and your neigh- 
boi-s — the United States — forming with these two republics an alliance 
which will be the liberal basis on which, henceforth, shall stand our 
mutual political and commercial interests. Your country will derive 
the greatest advantages from so auspicious a revolution ; and the glory 
with which you will cover yourselves will equal the prosperity which 
you will secure for yourselves and descendants. Screw up your courage, 
Frenchmen of Louisiana, Away with pusillanimity — sa ira — 2^ ira — 
audaces fortuna juvat." 

This inflamatory document was distributed by Genet's agents 
throughout all the tenitoiy ; it was read by all and created, 
as might have been expected, much sensation. August de la 
Chaise, a native of Louisiana, was Genet's chief emissary in 
promoting the Kentucky invasion, though Clarke was to have 
been commander-in-chief of the expedition. De la Chaise was 
a person of winning manners, of inconquerable zeal and chival- 
ric devotion to the cause of "liberty and equality," and he la- 
bored during the winter of 1793^ with consummate address, 
to avert the consequences threatened by Washington's deter- 
mined action. 

After the reception of Governor Shelby's refusal to enforce 
the Admistration's orders Washington took steps to arrest the 
expedition Major-General Anthony Wayne, then "Com- 
mander-in-Chief" of the regular army,' was pressing his event- 

» The " regular army," then denominated " the Legion of the United States," 
consisted of one Major-General, four Brigadiers and their several staffs, the neces- 
sary commissioned ofBcers and five thousand one hundred and twenty non-com- 
missioned officers and privates ! With this army Wayne was expected to sustain, 
and did so, the fortunes of the Republic in the Great West. 

30 



240 CONSPIEACY OF GENET. 

fill campaign against the savages of the North-west Territoiy. 
He was at once instructed to use military force in order to 
prevent any passage down the river of the armed host. For 
that purpose he fully garrisoned Fort Massac, on the Ohio, 
(Kentucky side,) thirty-eight miles above its mouth. Wayne 
also was instructed to hold a body of troops ready for service 
at his headquarters at Hobson's Choice, near Cincinnati. All 
this argued Washington's determination to use every means in 
his power to sustain the supremacy of his authority. 

The expedition fortunately failed ; not, as Clarke's biogi'a- 
pher assumes, because of the counter-revolution in France, but 
from the want of funds with which to sustain the heavy ex- 
pense of his revolutionary adventure. Genet, having obtained 
one large instalment of the debt due from the United States to 
the French Government — to the Grown of France — sought, in 
order to obtain funds for his Spanish conquest, to cajole Ham- 
ilton into accepting drafts for the instalments due in 1794-95. 
But, the Treasurer had no idea of placing funds in the trick 
ster's hands to be employed against the peace and good faith 
of the Government. He replied that, in his view, the amount 
due in 1794 already had been paid ; while any payment of the 
instalment of 1795 must depend upon the success of loans yet 
to be negotiated in Europe — an answer too conclusive for of- 
fense even to the now thoroughly exasperated French parti- 
sans, whose dislike of Washington, and hate of Hamilton, did 
not abate with their success, the first in preserving the country 
in its attitude of neutrality and the second in consummating 
his plans of finance. The one saved the honor of the country 
by protecting its dignity and asserting its power ; the other 
saved the credit of the country by a vitalization of its finances 
to a degree deemed incredible even by the most able minds of 
the age. That these true patriots should have been the sub- 
jects of calumnies unstinted may well excite our surprise.' 

1 We have given Washington's estimate of this " opposition," but may subjoin, 
as more fully illustrative of the feeling of the French faction toward him, an ex- 
tract from Tom Paine's " Letter to George Washington," written and published in 
Paris in the Summer of 1793, after reception of the President's Proclamation of 
Neutrality : 

" Elevated to the chair of the Presidency you assumed the merit of every thing 



FAILURE OF THE EXPEDITION. 241 

Upon tlie failure of the Kentucky expedition De la Chaise 
addressed the democratic society of Lexington a note' from 
which we learn the full measure of the conspiracy contemplat- 
ed. He said : 

" Citizens : Unforeseen events, the effects of causes wliicli it is unneces- 
sary here to develop, have stopped the march of two thousand brave 
Kentuckians, who, strong in their courage, in the justice of their rights, 
in the purity of their cause, and in the general assent of their fellow- 
citizens, and convinced of the brotherly dispositions of the Louisianians 
waited only for their orders to go and take away, by the irresistible 
power of their arms, from those despotic usurpers the Spaniards, the 
possession of the Mississippi, secure for their country the navigation of 
it, break the chains of the Americans and of their French brethren in 
the province of Louisiana, hoist up the flag of liberty in the name of 
the French republic, and lay the foundations of the prosperity and hap- 
piness of two nations destined by nature to be but one, and so situated 
as to be the most happy in the universe. 

" Citizens '. The greater the attempts you have made toward the suc- 
cess of that expedition, the more sensible you must be of the impedi- 
ments which delay its execution, and the more energetic should your 
efforts be toward procuring new means of success. There is one from 
which I expect the greatest advantages and which may be decisive — 
that is, an address to the National Convention, or to the Executive 
Council of France. In the name of my countrymen in Louisiana, in the 
name of your own interest, I dare once more ask you this new proof of 
patriotism. 

to yourself, and the natural ingratitude of your constitution began to appear. You 
commenced your Presidential career by encouraging and swallowing the grossest 
adulation, you travelled America from one end to the other, to put yourself in the 
way of receiving it. You have as many addresses in your chest as James the lid. 
Monopolies of every kind marked your administration, almost in the moment of its 
commencement. The lands obtained in the Revolution were lavished upon parti, 
sans : the interest of the disbanded soldier was sold to the speculator : injustice 
was acted under the pretense of faith ; and the Chief of the army became the pat- 
ron of the fraud. 

" And as to you, Sir, treacherous in private friendship, and a hypocrite in public 
life, the world will be puzzled to decide whether you are an apostate or impostor; 
whether you have abandoned good principles, or whether you ever had any." 

Jefferson had strenuously pressed Tom Paine for Post Master General in Wash- 
ington's Cabinet. The President's refusal to accept the reckless infidel's services 
doubtless had something to do with his hostility. Jefferson remained, to the last, 
a warm friend of Paine. 

* See American State Papers, vol. i., page 931. 



242 CONSPIRACY OF GENET. 

"Being deprived of my dearest hopes, and of tlie pleasure, after an 
absence of fourteen years and a proscription of three, of returning to the 
bosom of my family, my friends, and my countrymen, I have only one 
course to follow — that of going to France and expressing to the repre- 
sentatives of the French people the cry, the general wish of the Louisi- 
anians to become part of the French republic — informing them, at the 
same time, of the most ardent desire which the Kentuckians have had, 
and will continue to have for ever, to take the most active part in any 
undertaking tending to open to them the free navigation of the Mis- 
sissippi.* 

" The French republicans, in their sublime constitutional act, have 
proffered their protection to all those nations who may have the courage 
to shake off the yoke of tyranny. The Louisianians have the most sa- 
cred right to it. They are French, but have been sacrificed to despot- 
ism by arbitrary power. The honor, the glory, the duty of the National 
Convention is to grant them their powerful support. 

" Every petition or plan relative to that imi^ortant object would meet 
with the highest consideration. An address from the Democratic Soci- 
ety of Lexington would give it a greater weight. 

" Accept, Citizens, the farewell, not the last, of a brother who is de- 
termined to sacrifice everything in his power for the liberty of his coun- 
try, and the prosperity of the generous inhabitants of Kentucky. Salut 
en la patrie. Auguste La Chaise." 

The agent had no opportunity of serving again in the 
" cause of Kentucky." With Genet's recal, and Washington's 
firm repressive policy, nothing was left for the revolutionists in 
Kentucky but submission to the Executive will. 

The Florida expedition also was abortive from the want of 
means. The Governors of Georgia and South Cafolina co-op- 
erated with Washington to prevent American citizens from 
embarking in the invasion, A number of arrests were made 
of Genet's emissaries and the rendezvous in Georgia broken 
up. As late as April, 1794, a force of French troops landed 
on the Spanish side of the river St. Mary — the van of the army 
of conquest ; but, none others followed. Genet's recal, and the 
absorption of funds in other more pressing directions, compell- 
ed the French National Convention soon to give over the idea 

» Marshall states that intercepted letters showed several members of the French 
National Convention to have approved of the Minister's scheme of conquest. M. 
Genet was, as Major-General to be Commander-in-Chief of all forces raised on the 
American continent. The scheme was not given over by the French for several 
years — though nothing more was done to accomplish its ambitious ends. 



EECAL OF THE MINISTER. 243 

of absorbing American territory Marshall in bis " Life of 
Washington" says : " This intelligence (of the two expeditions) 
seemed to render a further forbearance incompatible with the 
dignity, perhaps with the safety of the United States. The 
question of superseding the diplomatic functions of M. Genet, 
and depriving him of the privileges attached to that character, 
was brought before the Cabinet (January, 1794) and a message 
to Congress was prepared, communicating these transactions, 
and avowing a determination to adopt that measure within — • 
days, unless, in the meantime, one or the other House should 
signify the opinion that it was not advisable so to do. In this 
state, the business was arrested by receiving a letter from Mr. 
Morris (our Minister to France) announcing, ofl&cially, the recal 
of this rash minister (Grenet)." 

His successor, M. Fauchent, arrived in Philadelphia, Febru- 
ary, 1794. Genet left for France, at once, but not until he 
had received congratulations, addresses of sympathy and other 
marks of respect from numerous public societies and individu- 
als. The " opposition" ever regarded him as a martyr in the 
cause of Liberty ! Many, however, of those who at first had 
favored his principles and his projects, became disgusted at his 
course. The indignity heaped, by the foreigner, upon Wash- 
ington and his Administration brought its reward of indigna- 
tion from thousands of those who, though French partizans 
and members, of the democratic societies, were, nevertheless, 
too patriotic to sustain French assumption at the exjDcnse of 
American self-respect. Washington's conduct throughout the 
ministry of Genet and his successor, was admirable. To his 
great prudence, his firmness, his power to breast the popular 
storm, excited by the Minister, did the country owe its second 
preservation. Had it made cause with France, it must have 
been involved in the fearful struggle which shook Europe to 
its base. 

The " Whiskey Lisurrection" which Washington was called 
upon to suppress by force during the latter part of the year 
1794, was one of the legitimate results of Genet's machinations. 
Many writers will have it that the turbulent uprising in West- 
ern Pennsylvania was due alone to the excise ; but, it is a nar* 



244 CONSPIRACY OF GENET. 

row view of tlie case. Tlie first fruit of Genet's procedure was 
to bring odium upon the National Government — to render his 
partisans disobedient citizens. The ' democratic societies' were 
but the Jacobin clubs reproduced : though organized by the 
anti-Federalists professedly to oppose what Jefferson called the 
Monocrats, these societies were ultra " State Eights" champi- 
ons and proved their disloyalty to the General Government in 
every conceivable way. They contemned Washington, hated 
Hamilton, scorned John Adams, abused Marshall and assailed 
Jay with extreme malignity. The Pennsylvania troubles receiv- 
ed an impetus from the excise, but their exciting cause was 
the ' democratic societies,' their leaders were 'democratic' lead- 
ers, their ultimate aim was the independence of Western Penn- 
sylvania and the formation of a Confederacy or a league of 
States upon the plan of the Kentucky secessionists — to unite 
with France in opening the Mississippi, and to form part of a 
French American republic, or to remain in alliance with such 
a republic yet retaining their State independency. The insur- 
rection had been brewing for several years ; it was simply one 
eruption of that conspiracy concocted by the disunionists and 
afterwards du-ected by the French ministers, to override the 
General Government and to denationalise the national exist- 
ence. The party there b- >rn of the spirit of turbulence, has 
existed to this day, and doubtless will continue to exist so long 
as there are demagogues to fan the flames of incendiarism un- 
der the hollow pretense of " defending and perpetuating popu- 
lar rights." In a people's government like ours, where there 
are knaves to lead there are fools to follow ; and, for the com- 
ing century, we may expect to see " popular" outbreaks every 
decade. With a central Executive strong enough to maintain 
Its ascendency and to enforce its authority we have nothing to 
fear ; but, if it ever should come to pass that our National au- 
thorities are powerless to resist and to suppress disloyal com- 
binations our liberties are gone and a mob must rule. Let 
American citizens, then, guard well their liberties, and preserve 
them by sustaining the Government and the Laws against all 



THE ALIEN AND SEDITION TROUBLES. 



It is not possible for tlie people of this generation to con- 
ceive of the excitement in social and political circles during 
the terms of Washington, Adams and Jefferson. Discontent 
arising from State enmity of the new National Government 
which had absorbed their supremacy in its own ; opposition to 
laws of Congress not acceptable to people of certain sections ; 
hostility to the schemes of finance pressed to a successful initia. 
tion by Alexander Hamilton ; insane partisan sympathy for 
France and hate of Great Britain ; the uprising of a purtj im- 
placable in its opposition to the Federalists, whom it charac- 
terized as " Monocrats" ; — all conspired, during Washington's 
second term, to create divisions which it took years to heal. 
In previous papers [see " Whiskey Insurrection" and "Genet's 
Conspiracy"] we have alluded to the influences at work to un- 
settle the public mind. After a suppression of the Western 
discontents and the recal of Genet, the seeds sown by Jacobin 
clubs and democratic societies spread like thistles and bore 
fruit prolific of passions, hates and distempered minds. Sym- 
pathy for the French revolutionists continued to grow, in spite 
of Washington's neutrality injunctions. Jefferson, who had, 
with the beginning of the year 1794, withdrawn from Wash- 
ington's Cabinet to " contemplate the tranquil growth of his 
lucerne and potatoes" at Monticello, soon became the recog- 
nised head of the opposition. James Madison, James Monroe 
and Aaron Burr were his partisans. All three cast the weight 
of their great influence in the scale of the French faction, and 
inaugurated that hostility to Great Britain which was the 



246 ALIEN AND SEDITION TROUBLES. 

fruitful tlieme of popular discourse for twenty years. They did 
more : they perfected plans for overthrowing the ascendancy of 
the Federalists ; and the fact that each of the first three were Pres- 
ident in turn, and the last Yice President, proves how success- 
fully they manipulated public opinion. 

"Washington, in his last speech to Congress, August 7th, 
1796, said : 

" While in our external relations some serious inconveniences and em- 
barrassments have been overcome and others lessened, it is with much 
pain and deep regret I mention that circumstances of a very unwelcome 
nature have lately occurred. Our trade has suifered and is suffering 
extensive injuries in the West Indies from the cruisers and agents of the 
French Republic; and communications have been received from its 
minister here, which indicate the danger of a further disturbance of our 
commerce by its authoi'ity ; and which are in other respects far from 
agreeable. It has been my constant, sincere and earnest wish, in con- 
formity with that of our nation, to maintain cordial harmony and a per- 
fectly friendly understanding with that Republic. This wish remains 
unabated ; and I shall jDersevere in the endeavor to fulfil it to the utmost 
extent of what shall be consistent with a just and indispensable regard 
to the rights and honor of our country ; nor will I easily cease to cher- 
ish the expectation, that a spirit of justice, candor and friendship, on 
the part of the Republic, will eventually ensure success." 

The spirit of "justice, candor and friendship" did not visit 
the hearts and minds of men intoxicated with a new-found 
liberty ; nor did the existence, in this country, of a powerful 
party which sustained French interests in opposition to the 
wishes of the National Administration, serve to lessen the hos- 
tility of the French Convention toward the party and policy 
then supreme. Yet Washington strove to effect a reconcilia- 
tion by every means in his power short of a virtual surrender 
to the insane French faction. Early in January, 1797, he re- 
quested the Secretary of State, Mr. Pickering, to address a 
letter to the newly appointed Minister to France, C. C. 
Pinckney, reviewing the then freshly reiterated allegations of 
M. Adet, French Minister to the United States, made against 
the policy and acts of Washington's Administration,* " exam- 

* These allegations were made by M. Adet in a letter addressed to Mr. Pickeriug 
— a copy of Trhicli letter was sent, at once, by the Frenchman, to the notorious 
.4twora newspaper (Philadelphia) for publication! Its preparation and publica- 
tion were designed to influence the then pending Presidential election, hoping to 



BARRAS INSOLENT ADDRESS. 2-i7 

ining and reviewing the same, and accompanjing tne state- 
ment with a collection of papers and letters relating to trans- 
actions therein adverted to." 

This letter was prepared with great care and dispatched by 
Mr. Pinckney. He arrived in France only to be ordered, with 
his letter, out of French territory ! Mr. Monroe, the retiring 
Minister, was addressed, at the audience of leave with M. Bar- 
ras, President of the Directory, in these extraordinary terms : 

" The French Republic hopes that the successors of Columbus, of 
Raleigh, aud of Penn, ever jJroud of their liberty, will never forget that 
they owe it to France. * * * * jj, their wisdom, they will weigh 
the magnanimous benevolence of the French people with the artful ca- 
resses of perfidious designers, who meditate to draw them back to their 
ancient slavery. Assure, Mr. Minister, the good American people that, 
like them, we adore liberty ; that they will always have our esteem, and 
that they will find in the French people the republican generosity which 
knows how to accord peace, as it knows how to make its sovereignty 
respected. 

" As to you, Mr. Minister Plenipotentiary, you have fought for the 
principles, you have known the true interests of your country. Depart 
with our regrets. We give up, in you, a representative of America, and 
we retain the remembrance of the citizen whose personal qualities honor 
that title." 

This insulting address was followed by other steps which 
left no alternative but to swallow it in humiliation or to resent 
it. John Adams, as Washington's successor, convened Con- 
gress in extra session May 15th, 1797. His opening speech to 
the two Houses made this reference to the attitude of France : 

" The speech of the President (M. Barras) discloses sentiments more 
alarming than the refusal of a minister, because more dangerous to our 
independence and union ; and, at the same time, studiously marked 
with indignities toward the Government of the United States. It evinc- 
es a disposition to separate the people from their Government ; to per- 
suade them that they have different affections, principles and interests 
from those of their fellow citizens, whom they themselves have chosen 
to manage their common concerns, and thus to produce divisions fatal 
to our peace. Such attempts ought to be repelled with a decision that 

strengtlien the French party and thus elect Thomas Jefferson as Washington's suc- 
cessor. The publication was an outrage upon all diplomatic usage ; and yet the 
act was in perfect keeping with the insolent course uniformly pursued toward the 
Administration by the French embassadors. 

31 



248 ALIEN AND SEDITION TROUBLES. 

sball convince Prance and the world, that we are not a degraded peo- 
ple, humiliated under a colonial spirit of fear, and sense of inferiority, 
fitted to be the miserable instruments of foreign influence, and regard- 
lesis of national honor, character and interest." 

Adams, doubtless influenced by the tremendous outcry 
raised by the French partizans, and adopting also the wishes of 
the Vice President, Thomas Jefferson, determined upon dis- 
patching a special mission to France, whose object he announc- 
ed to be "to dissipate umbrages, remove prejudices, rectify 
errors, and adjust all differences, by a treaty between the two 
powers." "Washington, from his retirement, beheld this state 
of affairs with alarm — apparently seeing in the conduct of the 
French Directory a design to force this country into the em- 
braces of France, thus to render the American Eepublic its 
ally in the tremendous war which followed the downfall of the 
old regime. "Things cannot," he wrote to a friend, "and 
ought not to remain any longer in their present disagreeable 
state. Nor should the idea that the Grovernment and the peo- 
ple have different views, be suffered any longer to prevail at 
home or abroad ; for it is not only injurious to us, but dirgrace- 
fal also, that a Government constituted as ours is, should be 
administered contrary to their interest, if the fact be so." 

He did not conceive that any good would come of the mis- 
sion. " It is hardly to be expected" he further wrote, " that 
the Directory will acknowledge its errors and tread back its 
steps immediately. This would announce at once that there 
has been precipitancy and injustice in the measures they have 
pursued." He judged truly. 

The three ministers extraordinary named — Pinckney, Mar- 
shall and Gerry — assembled in Paris October 4th, 1797, but 
were not recognised in their of&cial capacity. Their report* 
revealed at once the baseness and the insincerity of the French 
authorities. Talleyrand, through his secret agents — many of 
whom he ever employed — demanded a heavy sum as a douceur 
preliminary to the opening of negotiations ! Several attempts 
to obtain recognition and to open the conferences failed ; at 
each interview the agent of the French Minister of State in- 

* American State Papers, vols, iii., iv. 



INFAMOUS DEMAND OF TALLEYRAND. 24-9 

sisted upon his bribe. Irving tlius chronicles the conduct of 
the mission: 

" On the 30tli of October, the same subject was resumed in the apart- 
ments of the plenipotentiary, and on this occasion, beside the secret 
agent, an intimate friend of Talleyrand was present. The expunging 
of the passages in the President's speech was again insisted on, and it 
was added that, after that, money was the principal object. ' We must 
have money — a great deal of money ! ' were his words. 

" At a third conference, October 21st, the sum was fixed at 32,000,000 
francs (6,400,000 dollars), as a loan secured on the Dutch contributions, 
and 250,000 dollars in the form of a douceur to the Directory. 

" At a subsequent meeting, October 27th, the same secret agent said : 
' Gentlemen, you mistake the point, you say nothing of the money you 
are to give — you make no offer of money — on that ijoint you are not 
explicit.' ' We are exj)licit enough,' replied the American envoys. ' We 
will not give you one farthing ; and before coming here, we should have 
thought such an offer as you now jjropose, would have been regarded 
as a mortal insult.' 

" On this indignant reply, the wily agent intimated that if they would 
only pay, by way of fees, just as they would to a lawyer, who should 
plead their cause, the sum required for the private use of the Directory, 
they might remain at Paris until they should receive further orders from 
America as to the loan required for Government. 

" Being inaccessible to any such disgraceful and degrading proposi- 
tions, the envoys remained several months in Paris unaccredited, and 
finally returned at separate times, without an official discussion of the 
object of their mission." 

Thus were the doors closed against a settlement; while the 
Directory, further to exasperate the people of this country, as 
well as to strengthen the French party in America, passed a 
decree confiscating neutral vessels and their cargoes if any por- 
tion of their loads should consist of British fabrics or produc- 
ductions ! This struck a severe if not fatal blow at the com- 
merce of the United States, then the " great neutral carriers of 
the world." 

War now seemed inevitable, and preparations were made 
accordingly. The great mass of American intelligence stood 
by the Government, and were prepared to resent French arro- 
gance to the last. Washington — who had sought Mt. Yernon, 
there to pass his remaining years in repose — was made Com- 
mander-in-Chief, an appointment seemingly called for by the 



250 ALIEN AND SEDITION TROUBLES. 

alarming emergency. Not only were the Frencli to be met on 
land and sea, but the French party in the States, strong in 
numbers, powerful in leaders, moved by a common sympathy 
for the interests of France and hate of the Federalists, were to 
be taught loyalty and forced to sustain the war measures, 
Washington alone was the nation's hope. Hamilton, writing 
to him to beg his acceptance of the position to which President 
Adams had called him, said : "I use the liberty which my at- 
tachment to you and the public authorizes, to offer you my 
opinion that you should not decline the appointment. It is 
evident that the public satisfaction at it is lively and universal. 
It is not to be doubted that the circumstances will give an ad- 
ditional spring to the public mind, will tend much to unite, 
and will facilitate the measui'cs which the conjuncture requires." 

Irving adds : 

" It was with a heavy heart that Washington found his dream of 
repose once more interrupted ; but his strong fidelity to duty would 
not permit him to hesitate. He accepted the commission, however, 
with the condition that he should not be called into the field until 
the army was in a situation to require his presence ; or it should 
seem indispensable by the urgency of circumstances." 

Hamilton was named by "Washington second in command, 
and 0. C. Pinckney third. General Knox was named fourth, 
but refused to serve under his juniors — a point of etiquette 
which the veteran companion-in-arms of Washington lived to 
regret. Every arrangement was made during the Summer of 
1798 to place the troops, called into the field, in a state of high 
efficiency. 

Yet, affairs " hung fire," greatly to Washington's astonish- 
ment. His commissions were issued so slowly, and the Gov- 
ernment seemed so apathetic, that the Commander-in-Chief 
was much perplexed and chagrined. The solution of the mys- 
tery was afterwards given in the fact that secret overtures of 
settlement were being made, Talleyrand, with his usual sa- 
gacity and non-committalism, becoming alarmed at the bellig- 
erent attitude of the United States, after badgering Mr. Gerry, 
and courting the offices of several " democratic" but unofficial 
emissaries, wrote to the secretary of the French Minister at the 
Hague, intimating that, should the United States send a plen- 



ATTACKS ON THE ADMINISTRATION. 251 

ipotentiaiy to France, to adjust differences, lie would unques- 
tionably be received "with the respect due to the representa- 
tive of a free, independent and powerful nation." This infor- 
mation the secretary at once communicated to the American 
Minister to Holland, William Yans Murray, who, in turn, 
hastened to remit it to the President, of the United States. Mr. 
Adams, rejoiced at this offering for an accommodation, laid the 
letter before the Senate along with his nomination of Mr. Mur- 
ray as -minister plenipotentiary to the French Eepublic (Feb. 
18th, 1799). Two others by the pressure of the Senate were 
added, viz.: Oliver Ellsworth and Patrick Henry, but Mr. 
Henry declining, Mr. Wm. R Davis was substituted. These 
three envoys, after various and somewhat inexplicable plots 
and counter plots, succeeded in effecting a treaty, which was 
signed Sept. 3d, 1800. Mr. Adams' conduct throughout the 
affair brought down upon him a storm of censure from all 
parties — censures which, even to this day, have weight with those 
who essay to pronounce upon this patriot's merits. 

All this is but preliminary to an understanding of the theme 
of this paper, namely, the Alien and Sedition Laws' excitement, 
and their consequents, the Kentucky resolutions of 1798. 

The French partisans were variously termed " anti-Federal- 
ists," " Eepublicans," "French Democrats," &c. All these 
most strenuously opposed the attitude of defiance at length 
shown to France. They clamored in public and private against 
the Federalists for " precipitatmg a collision;" they disap- 
proved the called session of Congress, May, 1797 ; they organ- 
ized their forces, during that session, for a determined resist- 
ance to all war measures ; they opened the batteries of the 
press with a virulence unexampled in the history of free jour- 
nalism; they schemed, intrigued, slandered, falsified; played 
the sycophant or the censor as the occasion required ; and con- 
tributed, by all means in their power, to stir up the most vio- 
lent elements of opposition to the Administration. On the part 
of Jefferson the hostility shown sprang quite as much from his 
detestation of the Federalists as for sympathy with France. 
Patriot as he was, he could but denounce Talleyrand's 
treatment of our Ministers ; yet, in the preparation for resent- 



252 ALIEN AND SEDITION TEOUBLES. 

ing that treatment and the wrongs inflicted upon our commerce 
b}^ French vessels of war and French privateers, the patriot 
was swallowed up in the Virginia politician. In the train of 
evils to flow from a war, he beheld an increased public debt, 
increased taxation, increased war establishment and increased 
list of army officials. The latter must contribute to the in- 
creased strength of the Federalists. These were good issues 
with which to go before the people, and they were used to the 
utmost. His partisans, in and out of Congress, marshaled by 
Burr, Madison, Gallatin, Nicholas, the New York Livingstons, 
Findley, Giles, Smith of Maryland, and others, labored assidu- 
ously to fix a stigma upon all proceedings looking to the crea- 
tion of a war establishment under any pretext; while, in 
Jay's treaty with Great Britain, (which they had bitterly op- 
posed and denounced in all its stages, before and after its con- 
firmation,) they beheld at once the sole cause and a justification 
of French irritation. 

From this opposition sprang a feeling of resentment in the 
breasts of the war party something akin to that felt in the 
Northern States against the " copperhead" faction of 1863. This 
hostility of the opposition soon resolved itself into a malignant 
persecution of men and measures, from the President to the 
humblest citizen. The Aurora, of Philadelphia, edited by 
Bache, a grandson of Benjamin Franklin, fairly blazed with 
the lightning of its wrath against the Federalists and their 
" accursed policy" ; it stole State secrets, pryed into Cabinet 
mysteries, invented stories at will of the most outrageous char- 
acter ; and never, for a single issue, intermitted its abuse of all 
concerned in sustaining the dignity of our flag.' It was the 
recognised organ of the anti- Republicans ; and, as the people, 

1 This sheet wrote thus on Washington's retiring from office : " The man wlio is 
the source of all the misfortunes of our country is this day reduced to a level with 
his fellow-citizens and is no longer possessed of power to multiply evils upon the 
United States. If ever there was a period for rejoicing this is the moment." And 
much more in the same spirit. His sin, in this journal's estimation, seemed to con- 
sist in the fact that Washington was the bulwark behind which the Federalists were 
intrenched. The Aurora then was Jefferson's accredited exponent, and so remain- 
ed during the life of Bache (who died in August, 1798) , and of his successor, James 
Duaue, an Irishman, under whose auspices its malignancy and powers of vitupera- 
tion measurably increased. 



?HE "democratic" NEWSPAPERS. 253 

during 1798, began to centre more closely around the Presi- 
dent, to resent the indignities heaped on their country by 
France, it unbottled new vials of wrath and gall. The Aurora 
was also the organ of Adet, the French Minister, and received 
from his hand important documents which that functionary 
had communicated to our Government, and which alone held 
the right of their publication. These State documents the news- 
paper would parade before the people even before our Govern- 
ment had considered them ! They were thus published in the 
spirit of arrogance and desire for discord which had rendered 
M. Genet so offensive to Washington's Administration ; and 
all partisans of the French faction, instead of resenting the in- 
sult designed to the National authorities, by the foreigner, 
applauded. This we instance as one of many acts which 
demonstrated the abasement of that public sentiment which 
was ■ arraigned as the "opposition" to Adams' war measures. 
That there were many good men and true patriots among 
those who opposed all steps and acts favoring an appeal to 
arms is undeniable ; but, the leading men of the factionists 
were demagogues who intrigued for power more from want of 
principle than from any well defined system of opinions. The 
Aurora found echoes in several other journals — the Examiner, 
of Richmond, the Argus, of New York, the Chronicle, of Bos- 
ton, &c., all of which became arsenals of assault on the domi- 
nant party. What .their "principles" were — if such it be 
slaimed they had — we learn from Jefferson's letter to Mazzei, 
the Italian patriot. Under date of January 25th, 1797, he 
wrote: 

"Our political situation is wonderfully changed since you. 
left us. Instead of that noble love of liberty and that repub- 
lican government, which triumphantly carried us through the 
war, an Anglo-monarchio-aristocratic party has arisen, whose 
avowed object is to draw over us the substance, as they have 
already done the forms, of the British Government. Never- 
theless, the principal body of our citizens remain faithful to 
their republican principles. All our proprietors of lands are 
friendly to these principles, as also the great mass of talents. 
Against us are the Executive power, the Judiciary power 



254 ALIEN AND SEDITION TROUBLES. 

(two out of three branches of our Government), all the officers 
of the Government, all who are seeking office, all timid men 
who prefer the calms of despotism to the tempestuous sea of 
liberty, British merchants and Americans trading on British 
capital, speculators and those interested in the public funds, 
banks invented for purposes of corruption and for assimilating 
us in all things, rotten as well as sound, to the British model. 
I should give you a fever were I to name the apostates who 
have embraced these heresies, men who were Samsons in the 
field and Solomons in the council,' but whose hair has been 
shorne off by the harlot of England. They would wrest from 
us that liberty which we have obtained with so much peril 
and labor, but we shall preserve it." &c., &c. 

This remarkable indictment was drawn up by Jefferson while 
yet in Washington's confidence; but, its most unexpected 
publication by Mazzei, alienated Washington from a person 
who could so play at once the friend and the foe. The letter 
brought forth volumes of controversy, and served to intensify 
animosities rapidly growing against the French partisans, 
who were regarded by the Federalists as little else than anar- 
chists and disintegrators of Government, alike dangerous to 
morals and to liberty-. 

The Paris Moniteur, in publishing the above letter, used it 
as an evidence of the hostily of the Government (Federal) but 
as a proof that the 'peo'ph in America were with France. It 
said : " there is no doubt it (the action of the French Govern- 
ment in ordering Mr. Pinckney out of their territory) will give 
rise in the United States to discussions which may afford a 
triumph to the party of good republicans, the Fnends of France." 
This expression discloses the design of all French intrigue 
in this country, and the cause of the overbearing insolence 
toward our authorities practiced by Genet, Fauchent and Adet. 
Assuming that the people made the Government and that the 
people were with them, the French authorities therefore were 

* Washington is here specifically referred to. In his (Jefferson's) letter to Mad- 
ison, (March '27th, 1796,) he had said of the President: " I wish that his honesty 
and his political errors may not furnish a second occasion to exclaim ' Curse on 
his virtues, they have ruined his country.' " 



MALIGNITY OF THE OPPOSITION. 255 

justified in setting the Federal authorities at defiance ! Never, 
for one moment, did the French ministers intermit their en- 
deavors to precipitate a colHsion between the people and their 
Administration; and in this nefarious work History has it to 
record that they received the utmost sympathy and co-opera- 
tion from Jefferson, Burr, &c., which it was 2MUtic to bestow. 
No whitewashing of their memories ever will cover this stain 
on their escutcheon. 

Affairs became so dangerously exciting, and the French fac- 
tion so irreconcilably malignant, that Congress, early in 1798, 
began to consider the necessity of a Sedition Law, to punish 
the incendiarism of the press, and to protect the authorities 
and leading men from the effect of its most shocking libels. 
It was a fact that the most venomous of these journalists were 
foreigner's — " unwilling exiles" from their own countries, where 
they had so outraged society as to be compelled to take refuge 
in America. Their most active supporters also were foreigners 
— persons who, having been driven from Europe by the storm 
of revolution sweeping over that continent, had flown to Amer- 
ica to add greatly to the opposition prevailing against the con- 
stituted authorities under the guise of a hate of Federalism. 
These refugees, chiefly from Ireland and France, almost to a 
man were hostile to the neutral attitude of the Government, 
and everywhere formed an element of society turbulent if not 
dangerous. Against these legislation was proposed — so in- 
censed did the Federalists become at the course pursued by 
the emigrants. Jefferson, writing to his confidant, Madison, 
under date of April 28th, 1798, said of the projected legisla- 
tive action : 

" One of the war party, in a fit of unguarded passion, declared some 
time ago that they would pass a citizen bill, an alien bill and a sedition 
bill. Accordingly, some days ago, Coit laid a motion on the table for 
modifying the citizen law. Their threats pointed at Gallatin, and it is 
believed they will endeavor to mark him by this bill. Yesterday Hill- 
house laid on the table of the Senate a motion for giving jjower to send 
away suspected aliens. This is understood to be meant for Volney and 
CoUot. But it will not stop there when it gets into a course of execu- 
tion. There is now only wanting to accomplish the whole declaration 
before mentioned, a sedition bill, which we shall certainly soon see pro- 

32 



256 ALIEN AND SEDITION TROUBLES. 

posed. The object of that is the suppression of the Whig jiressesi 
Bache has been particularly named. That paper, and also Carey's tot- 
ter for want of subscriptions. We should really exert ourselves to pro- 
cure them, for if these papers fall, Republicanism will be entirely brow- 
beaten. The popular movement in the Eastern States is checked as we 
expected, and war addresses are showering in from New Jersey and the 
great trading towns. However, we still trust that a nearer view of 
war and a land tax will oblige the great mass of the people to attend. 
At present the war-hawks talk of Septembrizing, deportation and the 
examples for quelling sedition set by the French executive. All the 
firmness of the human mind is now in a state of requisition." 

Here we are informed of the acts contemplated, and also 
have the evidence of Jefferson's anxiety to sustain the two 
most offensive newspapers. It darkens the halo around the 
head of the writer of the Declaration of Independence to learn 
that the author of that glorious instrument became the patron 
of journals too indecent and too revolutionary for admission to 
respectable circles. The action adverted to quickly followed. 
As the Constitution secured the right of naturalization and 
consequent citizenship to foreigners, there remained for Con- 
gress only the power to fix the time and terms of qualification 
to enjoy the constitutional right. This power it exercised by 
the passage of an act amending the Naturalization law, ex- 
tending the previous necessary term' of residence from five to 
fourteen years, requiring five years previous declaration of in- 
tention to become a citizen instead of three years, as originally 
stipulated. But, "alien enemies" were not to be admitted to 
citizenship at all. " A register was to be kept of all aliens 
resident in the country, who were to report themselves under 
certain penalties ; and in case of application to be naturalized, 
the certificate of an entry in this register was to be the only 
proof of residence whenever that residence commenced after 
the date of this act." 

This did not, however, reach the evil most decried, viz.: the 
residence here of numerous French and Irish emigrants, not 
citizens, said to entertain designs against the peace of the coun- 
try, and suspected of, or known to be, in co-operation with ex- 
ternal enemies. Hildreth says : " Alarm on this score was by 
no means groundless. Talleyrand was believed to have acted 



THE FRENCH SPIES. 257 

during tlie latter part of his residence in the United States as 
a spy for the French government, and others of the exiled 
French were objects of a similar suspicion. The late attempts 
to set on foot French expeditions in Georgia and the W«st 
were not forgotten. Davis, the representative from Kentucky, 
stated that the commissions issued on that occasion were yet in 
existence, and that a certain Frenchman, resident in Kentucky, 
through whose hands they had passed, was still very busy in 
alienating the affection of the people from the United States, 
Indeed, it was strongly suspected, and probably not without 
reason, that Volney had not been engaged in exploring the 
Western country solely with scientific views. Like Micheaux, 
the botanist, a few years before, he had, perhaps, been employ- 
ed as a French government agent to obtain information ; and 
possibly too in forming connections of which advantage might 
be taken in case of a rupture with the United States, to pro- 
cure a dismemberment from the Union of the trans-Alleghany 
settlements, and their junction with Louisiana, which it was 
believed that France already had or soon would re-acquire." 
To meet the case of these parties a second act was passed, lim- 
ited to two years in its operation, bestowing upon the Presi- 
dent authority to order out of the country all such aliens as 
he might judge dangerous to the peace and safety of the United 
States, or suspect to be concerned in any treasonable or secret 
machinations. This second ordinance, known as the Alien Act, 
was most strenuously opposed in Congress, passing the House 
by a vote of forty-six to forty. Out of Congress it was receiv- 
ed with anathemas loud and ceaseless. It was regarded as an 
unconstitutional interference with the right secured to the ex- 
isting States to admit, prior to 1808, the importation or emi- 
gration of any such persons as they might think proper ; and 
also as an unconstitutional interference with the right of trial 
by jury. 

A third act also was added to provide for public safety in 
event of war declared by, or an invasion of, the United States, 
whereby all resident aliens, natives or citizens of the hostile 
nation, might, upon a proclamation to that eJEfect (to be issued 



258 ■ ALIEN AND SEDITION TEOUBLES. 

at the President's discretion) be apprehended, and secured or 
removed. 

These three acts exasperated those inimical to the Adminis- 
tration; but their exasperation was measurably heightened 
when, a few days later, Lloyd, Senator from Maryland, brought 
in his bill to define more precisely the crime of treason, and 
to define and punish the crime of sedition. The original bill 
was modified and finally passed, as amended, in the House by 
the close vote of forty-four to forty-one. As passed it provid- 
ed : First, that it is a high misdemeanor, punishable by fine, 
not exceeding five thousand dollars, for any persons to con- 
spire against the Government of the United States to impede 
the operation of the law, or to commit, advise or attempt to 
procure any insurrection, riot, unlawful assembly or combina- 
tion. The second section subjected to a fine, not exceeding 
two thousand dollars, the publishing of any false, scandalous 
or malicious writings against the Government of the United 
States, or either house of Congress, or the President, with in- 
tent to defame them or bring them into disrepute, or to excite 
against them the hatred of the people of the United States, or 
to stir up sedition, or to excite any unlawful combination for 
opposing any law of the United States, or to encourage any 
hostile designs of any foreign nation against the United States. 
The act was to continue in force until 25th of June, 1800. 

In its original shape Alexander Hamilton opposed the act 
on patriotic and individual grounds. He regarded it as highly 
exceptionable, and apprehended that it might induce just the 
evil, civil war, which it was especially intended to avert. "Let 
us not" said he, " establish tyranny ; energy is a very difi'erent 
thing from violence. If we make no false step we shall be 
eventually united ; but, if we push things to extremes, we shall 
then give to faction body and solidity." These views were 
quickly proven to be sound ; since, in spite of the apparent 
provocation for this proscriptive legislation, they were so 
alarmingly effective in their nature, that every class of citizen 
affected by them united in their condemnation, while the " re- 
publican" leaders, the French sympathisers, the society of 
United Irishmen and the Eoman Catholic element — all com- 



SECTIONAL ANIMOSITIES. 259 

bined, in one body, to bring odium upon the laws and their 
makers. So powerfully, indeed, did tLie enemies of the Ad- 
ministration use the acts that they were made instrum^tal in 
exalting Jefferson to the Presidency and Aaron Burr to the 
Yice Presidency, March 4th, 1801 ; while the Congress elected 
to meet Dec. 7th, 1800, showed the Federalists to be heavily 
in the minority. The Senate stood eighteen " Eepublicans" to 
fourteen Federalists ; the House sixty-nine " Eepublicans" to 
thirty-six Federalists. 

Thus sagaciously did the opposition use their opportunities. 
Though the Alien law was not enforced, and the Sedition law 
expired, hy limitation^ in June, 1800, the " republican" leaders 
made the most of the proscrij)tive principles involved in the 
acts, fixing upon the Federalists a purpose to circumscribe 
citizenship and to repress the free utterance of opinion — charg- 
es well calculated to consolidate and harmonise the half-dozen 
turbulent opposition elements which, until that moment, had 
not decidedly united. 

But six prosecutions were made under the Sedition act. As 
many more were attempted but abandoned. The death of 
Washington (1799), the peaceful adjustment (1800) of our af- 
fairs with France by the advent of the Bonapartists to power ; 
the division in the Federalists' ranks owing to the mingled 
rashness, folly and implacability of John Adams, and to his 
war with Alexander Hamilton ; the Alien and Sedition laws ; 
the severity of taxation, &c. — all conspired to drive from pow- 
er a party which gave character to the Government in its most 
perilous and trying moments, and stamped upon our institu- 
tions the features of central, self-sustaining power which alone 
have perpetuated the Union and made us great as one people. 

The excitement engendered duiing the years 1797-98 was 
but one manifestation of the sectional animosity prevailing be- 
tween the Northern and the Southern States. New England 
then was Federalist overwhelmingly ; New York and Pennsyl- 
vania were nicely balanced, though soon overwhelmingly dem- 
ocratic ; Virginia and the South were democratic, or anti-Fed- 
eralist. It was this growing spirit of local enmity, as well as 
the general discord prevailing, which induced Washington to 



260 ALIEN AND SEDITION TROUBLES, 

accept the Presidency for a second term. Urging him to take 
the office, Governor Eandolph, of Virginia, said that those who 
had opposed the Federal Constitution from " a hatred of the 
Union," never could he reconciled to it; while others would "push 
the construction of Federal power to every tenable extreme ;" 
sind added that the Eepublican (anti-Federalist) party had then 
adopted " the fatal error that the State Assemblies were to be 
resorted to as the engines of correction to the Federal Admin- 
istration." The "Democratic Societies", already referred to, 
[see "Whiskey Insurrection"], were positively disloyal to the 
General Government, but were not more so than the foreign 
factionists. The ©imposition, indeed, were so powerful, that 
Jeiferson wrote to Madison (Dec. 1794) : " Separation is now 
near and certain, and determined in the minds of all men." 
This disunion spirit Washington's great influence was barely 
able to suppress ; and, in preparing his " Farewell Address," 
this truly great man sought to show the value of Union and 
the necessity for its preservation. The election which follow- 
ed really was a contest between those desuing to solidify and 
to strengthen the Union, and those desiring to render it but 
the mere creature of convenience, without authority in, and 
possessing no rights supreme to, the States. This latter sec- 
tion Jefferson represented : he was its candidate for the Presi- 
dency (1796), and so nearly succeeded that Adams triumphed 
only by three electoral votes (71 to 68). Had the ballots thrown 
for Aaron Burr (also a "Eepublican") been cast for Jefferson, 
he would have been elected President by twenty-seven ma- 
jority.^ 

The evidence of Jefferson's antagonism to the Federal idea 
of the National " compact" ere long came forth in many ways. 
He labored, however, with extreme caution. Much of his cor- 
respondence, now made public, was not designed to see the 
light ; he worked incessantly, both in secret and openly, to 
accomplish his ambitious political aims — the overthrow of the 

* The vote of the Electoral College was : John Adams, 71 ; Thomas Jeflferson, 
68 ; Thomas Pinckney, 59 ; Aaron Burr, 30 ; Samuel Adams, 15 ; Oliver Ellsworth, 
11 ; George Clinton, 7 ; John Jay, 5 ; James Iredell, 3 ; George Washington, 2 ; 
John Henry, 2 ; S. Johnson, 2 ; C. C. Pinckney, 1. Sixteen States voted. 



THE KENTUCKY RESOLUTIONS. 261 

Federalists, the trmmpt of the " Republicans," and the exalta- 
tion of himself to the Presidency. That that was his aim, we 
now have the "cloud of witnesses" which carries con\dction. 

The history of the Kentucky Resolutions of '98 is as fol- 
lows : Mr. Jefferson, then Vice President of the United States, 
was visited at Monticello, in October, 1798, by George Nicho- 
las, of Kentucky, and his brother, Wilson C. Nicholas, soon 
afterwards chosen United States Senator from "Virginia, chiefly 
through Jefferson's influence. These persons, just from Phila- 
delphia — then the seat of National Government — represented 
that the leading Republicans in Congress, " finding themselves 
useless there," being "brow-beaten by a bold and overwhelm- 
ing majority in that body," had concluded to retire from that 
field and take a stand in the State Legislatures. Their pro- 
gramme was to reassert the doctrines of State Supremacy, so 
earnestly struggled for in the Convention which formed the 
Constitution, and maintained up to that moment by a large 
body of the people. Their views of government were against 
centralization, and, for that reason, they had opposed, in their 
Legislatures, the adoption of the Constitution. Once adopted, 
however, they were powerless except to triumph over the 
friends of that Constitution at the ballot box, and then to seek, 
by legislation, what they had failed to accomplish in Conven- 
tion — the denatioDalization of the General Government. But, 
they labored in vain during Washington's term of office, though, 
with their numerous popular rallying cries against taxation, 
against the excise, against Hamilton's banking schemes, against 
the Jay treaty with Great Britain, and, finally, against the 
Alien and Sedition laws, they obtained a vantage ground 
which soon gave them almost unbroken control of the Govern- 
ment for forty years. Jefferson, after canvassing the matter 
with the Nicholas brothers, finally consented to draw up a set 
of resolutions embodying the " Republican'' idea of State and 
National relations ; these resolutions were to be sanctioned by 
some State Legislature and sent by such Legislature to other 
States for action. Being Vice President, ought he to engage 
in the work proposed, which was especially designed to weak- 
en the strength and to circumscribe the authority of the Gov- 



262 ALIEN AND SEDITION TROUBLES 

ernment? He liad, only in the previous month, of June, writ- 
ten to a Virginian, John Taylor, to prove to him the impolicy 
of any scheme of disunion — of " estimating the separate mass 
'of Virginia and North Carolina with a view to their separate 
existence." Yet, Jefferson was a politician as well as a patri- 
ot ; and, seeing the way open for a broad, clear enunciation of 
doctrines which had in them the elements of popular s access, 
he did not shrink from the responsibility, particularly as he 
was not to be known as the author of the work. Under a 
pledge of secrec}^ the celebrated State Eights Eesolutions of 
'98 were wrought, and that pledge was faithfully kept until 
twenty years later, when, constrained by Nicholas' son to avow 
the authorship, he wrote : " I would have wished this rather 
to have remained, as hitherto, without inquiry." No doubt 
of it, since those resolutions make him the parent of that brood 
of dragons which has afflicted, and doubtless will continue to 
afflict, this Government with threats of political disintegration. 

The resolutions as prepared by Jefferson were more vicious 
and radically revolutionary than even the Kentucky Legisla- 
ture could bear, and were, therefore, changed — the original 
8th and 9th being discarded and new 8th and 9th substituted 
by Nicholas. As amended they were presented in the Legis- 
lature, Lower House, by John Breckenridge, and were adopt- 
ed Nov. 10th, 13th, by an almost unanimous vote.* 

The first assumed that the Federal Constitution is a compact 
between the States as States [ — an assumption not founded in 
fact, because the preamble to the Constitution declares posi- 
tively to the contrary: "We \\iq people of the United States'^ is 
its enacting clause — ] by which is created a Greneral Govern- 
ment for special purposes, each State reserving for itself the 
residuary mass of power and right, and "that, as in other cases 
oicomp)act between parties having no comwow judge, each party 
has an equal right to judge for itself as well of infractions as 
of the mode and manner of redress^ [Herein was laid the egg 
which hatched the dragons of nullification and secession. South 
Carolina in 1832 and 1860 only exercised the " rights" here set 
forth — nothing more.'' And the Hartford Convention, which 

* See Appendix for Eesolutions at length, as adopted. 

• See Appendix for Madison's defense and disclainaer. 



THE KENTUCKY RESOLUTIONS. 263 

Jeffersonian " democrats" never tire of stigmatising as a con- 
vention of traitors, only repeated, as its fundamental principle 
of action, the " right" patented if not invented by Thomas 
Jefferson, it is only when " Federalists" propose to exercise that 
right that it is treason?] 

This premise taken for granted the succeeding six resolu- 
tions applied the right of State judgment to three acts of the 
last Congress, viz : to punish counterfeiters of the bills of the 
United States Bank, the Sedition law and the Alien law — all 
of which were pronounced " not law, but altogether void and of 
no forced [This was the "tub" to those affected with the anti- 
National Bank mania, and to those foreign and domestic mal- 
contents whose discrimination between liberty and license was 
not particularly apparent] 

The seventh of the series as drawn by Jefferson postponed 
"to a time of greater tranquility" the "revisal and correction" 
of sundry other acts of Congress, also assumed to be founded 
upon an unconstitutional interpretation of the " right to impose 
taxes and excises to provide for the common defense and wel- 
fare and to make all laws necessary and proper for carrying 
into execution the powers vested in the Government" of the 
United States. [This was the " tub" to those who proposed 
to drink whiskey free of an excise, and who preferred to live 
without the annoyance of being taxed on what little property 
they might possess, for the support of a " General" Govern- 
ment] 

The eighth of Mr. Jefferson's series, directed the appoint- 
ment of a committee of conference and correspondence to com- 
municate the resolutions to the several States, and to inform 
them that the commonwealth of Kentucky, with all her esteem 
for her " co-States" and for the Union, was determined " to sub- 
mat to undelegated, and, consequently, unlimited powers in no 
man or body of men on earth; that, in cases of an abuse of the 
delegated powers, the members of the General Government be- 
ing chosen by the people, a change by the people would be 
the constitutional remedy; but, where powers are assumed 
which have not been delegated, a nullification of the act is the 
right remedy ; and that every /State has a natural right, in cases 
33 



264 ALIEN AND SEDITION TROUBLES. 

not within the compact^ to nullify^ of their oivn authority^ all as- 
sumptions of power hy others within their limttsy This extra- 
ordinary "higher law" assumption was justified, with much 
effort to prove that it was the only doctrine consistent with 
liberty — that, to appeal to Congress, in such a case, would be 
out of place, since Congress was not a party to the " compact" 
(the Constitution) but merely its creature ; therefore, the com- 
mittee of correspondence and conference was to call upon these 
" co-States" " to concur in declaring these acts void and of no 
force, and each to take measures of its own for providing that 
neither of these acts, nor any other of the General Government 
not plainly and intentionally authorized by the Constitution, 
shall be exercised within their respective territories." [Here 
was the "tub" to the big whale — to all that large class, who, 
disliking restraint upon their actions or their principles, pre- 
ferred to sail where and how they pleased. If any pilot boat 
or Federal ship seeking supplies, should be caught in their 
waters, she was to be scuttled and sunk. This promised a 
plentiful harvest of popular excitement, and, if enforced, would 
rend the Union to atoms.] 

The ninth resolution, as drawn by Jefferson, gave to the 
committee of correspondence power to correspond with like 
committees to be appointed by the " co-States" — the commit- 
tee being required to report all such correspondence at the next 
session of the Legislature. 

There never was a conspiracy concocted against the Union 
more fatal to its peace and to its life than that wrought in the 
library at Monticello ; and, if George Nicholas afterwards ex- 
tracted some of the fangs of the dragon before daring to pre- 
sent the monster for the caresses of the public, it does not 
make Thomas Jefferson any the less responsible for what he 
attempted to perform. Fiat Jmtitia et mat coelum ! 

It will be perceived, by reference to the resolutions as intro- 
duced and adopted, that the original first seven resolutions 
were accepted by Nicholas, but for the eighth and ninth Nicho- 
las substituted others which, as contrasted with Jefferson's 
production, resembled a dagger with its point broken off and 
its edges well dulled. The substitutes merely directed that 



THE VIRGINIA RESOLUTIONS. 265 

•fie preceding resolutions be laid before Congress by tbe Ken- 
tucky senators and representatives, who were "to use their 
best endeavors to procure at the next session a repeal of the 
aforesaid unconstitutional and obnoxious acts ;" the Governor 
meanwhile to transmit copies to the Legislatures of the several 
States, to whom an earnest argumentative appeal was address- 
ed, borrowed partly from Jefferson's eighth resolution, for an 
expression of opinion as to the Alien and Sedition laws, and 
for their concurrence with Kentucky in declaring these laws 
void and of no force, and in requesting their repeal at the next 
session of Congress. 

These resolutions were responded to quickly by a similar 
series— prepared by Madison at Jefferson's instigation — intro- 
duced to the Virginia Legislature by the John Taylor already 
leferred to as a disunionist. We give the series as adopted, in 
the Appendix. It will be seen that, though briefer and appa- 
rently less de-lSTational, they nevertheless inculcate the same 
baleful idea of overriding Congress and of making the General 
Government subordinate to the States, The resolutions, as 
passed, were deprived of much of their original anti-National 
animus. Indeed, in order to secure their passage at all, the 
most "representative" sections were eradicated ; the whole were 
so toned down as to render them less inimical to the General 
Government and more considerate of Congi-ess. The resolu- 
tions only passed, after a spirited and somewhat protracted 
debate — in the House of Delegates Dec. 21st, by a vote of one 
hundred to sixty-three, and in the Senate Dec. 24th, by four- 
teen to three. Then as ever since, up to 1861, the aristocratic 
element of Virginia's population — the old families with vast 
estates and many slaves — were extremely hostile to the idea of 
any authority supreme to that of Virginia. The " democratic" 
element was, therefore, largely in the ascendant ; and, from 
that day forward, not only Virginia, but all the Southern States 
presented the anomaly of its most exclusive and tvrannical 
element being most devoted to the democratic idea ! History 
furnishes few pri.rallels for this incident in our national expe- 
rience wherein the two extremes — the most liberty hating and 
liberty loving portion of society — act and vote in unison. 



266 ALIEN AND SEDITION TEOUBLES. 

Northern democrats have, from Jefferson's time down, voted 
with Southern aristocrats. 

These Virginia resolutions were sent forth to the States, ac- 
companied by an address, prepared by Madison with all the abil- 
ity of an adroit rhetorician, setting forth the causes of complaint 
against the Federal Government, and giving reasons at length 
for the adoption of the resolutions. This address called forth 
a counter address, signed by fifty-eight of the minority, in which 
it was declared that the awful crisis had arrived, lamenting the 
existence of the revolutionary resolutions, and justifying their 
own course in opposing them by declaring their apprehension 
of " the evils which disunited America must inevitably suffer." 
The minority address also put forth the sentiment that 
" America is one nation^ and, therefore, the State Governments 
are restrained from interfering with the great acts of sovereign- 
ty of the General Government." This address was presented 
by the minority to the Legislature, to be printed and circulated 
with the Madison paper; but, it was, by a vote of the majori- 
ty, denied the light, and was afterwards published in the news- 
papers, in which it had a wide circulation, with good effect on 
the public mind, as showing that Yirgmia was not all disloyal. 
Indeed, the resolutions and the address so alarmed many a 
patriot who had conscientiously opposed the adoption of the 
Constitution, that numbers of hitherto "republicans" came forth 
to sustain the Government by their influence against these evi- 
dently revolutionary proceedings. Patrick Henry, though in 
ill health and indisposed to any further public service, took 
the field in an active canvass for the Legislature for the pur- 
pose of fighting down the inic[uitous scheme concocted by the 
"republican" leaders to bring discredit upon the National 
Government. He did not then know how deeply Madison and 
Jefferson were implicated in the matter ; but, he did behold 
the appalling dangers awaiting the States and the Union if the 
doctrines embodied in the resolutions prevailed. Wirt, in his 
life of Henry, gives a report of one of his speeches made during 
the canvass for his election, in which he assumed that, in dar- 
ing to pronounce upon the validity of Federal laws the State 
had quitted the sphere in which she had been placed by the 



EESPONSE OF THE STATES. 267 

Constitution, had gone out of her jurisdiction in a manner not 
warranted by any authority, and, in the highest degree, alarm- 
ing to every considerate man ; and he declared that such op- 
position to the General Government as that proposed must be- 
get the enforcement of the laws by military power. This 
shows how the most intelligent minds construed the character 
of those resolves ; and, though both Madison and Jefferson, 
alarmed at the monster which they had evoked, gave, in after 
life,* ample evidence that they, too, repudiated the heresies of 
nullification and secession, their efforts in the two Legislatures 
were alarmingly revolutionary, in theory at least. The prin- 
ciples embodied in their resolves have constituted, ever since, 
the chief defense of all enemies of the Union. 

The address and resolves only elicited from the States marks 
of disapproval. No responsive echo came from any Legisla- 
ture save that of uneasy Kentucky. Maryland, Delaware, 
Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Ehode 
Island, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Vermont all ex- 
pressed their dissent in resolves denying the right assumed of 
a State Legislature deciding upon the validity of acts of Con- 
gress. The reply of Massachusetts was characteristic of her 
old heart of loyalty. She maintained the constitutionality of 
the Alien and Sedition laws and declared them to be justified 
by the exigency of the moment and by the power of Congress 
to provide for the common defense. This earnest denial of 
the State Eights' assumption, by men who had well considered 
the entire question in their labors upon the Constitution and 
in their canvass for its adoption, would seem to be conclusive 
upon one point, viz.: if States which had just merged their su- 

* Jefferson was no sooner in the Presidential cliair than he virtually repudiated 
his Kentucky programme. He said in his inaugural address that " the preserva- 
tion of the General Government in its vehole constitutional vigor, was the sheet 
anchor of our peace at home and safety abroad :" that " absolute acquiescence in 
the decisions of the majority was the vital principle of republics, from which there 
is no appeal but to force, the vital principle and immediate parent of despotism." 
The published works of both Madison and Jefferson contain many things which it 
is very hard to reconcile with the two series of resolves to which they gave the 
paternity of their great names. See Appendix for a letter not given in Madison's 
published works, wherein he denounces secession and gives his own views of the 
resolutions of '98. 



268 ALIEIf AND SEDITION TROUBLES. 

premacj in that of the Union, denounced the right to sit in 
judgment on acts of Congress and to call the General Govern- 
ment to an account at their will, that right must be regarded 
as a constitutional heresy. The burden of proof that it is nol 
a heresy is, therefore, thrown upon those who oppose the Con- 
stitution as expounded by those who constructed that instru- 
ment or assisted in its inauguration. We have but to cite the 
testimony of " the Fathers" to prove that the State rights dog- 
matists really stand in an attitude of revolution. 

But, after all, these bold resolves were not meant for a future 
generation. As we have said, they seem simply to have been 
an invention of a shrewd politician, in a moment interesting to 
the fortunes of his party, whereby to consolidate the several 
elements of opposition to the party in power, with a view to 
its overthrow and the consequent promotion of Thomas Jeffer- 
son to the Presidency. Chief Justice Marshall, writing of the 
debates in the Virginia Legislature on the resolves, said : 

"The debates on these subjects were long and animated. In the 
course of them sentiments were declared and (in my judgment) views 
■were developed of a very serious and alarming extent. To me it 
seems that there are men who will hold power by any means rather 
than not hold it, and who would prefer a dissolution of the Union 
to the continuance of an administration not of their own party. They 
will risk all the ills which may result from the most dangerous ex- 
periments rather than permit that happiness to be enjoyed which is 
dispensed by other hands than their own." 

Though written by an administration man, this was the view 
of a clear head and a just mind. It was confirmed by subse- 
quent events. Those who intrigued were all the recipients of 
offices and honors at the hands of the popular party. Jefferson 
became President ; Burr, Vice President ; Madison, Secretary of 
State ; Albert Gallatin, Secretary of the Treasury ; and John 
Breckenridge, Attorney General. Madison, next had his turn 
at the Presidency, to be followed by Monroe, also a Virginian 
and a partisan of the Jeiferson school. 

Referring to the Kentucky and Virginia resolves Edward 
Everett has correctly said: "They did their work — all they 
were intended or expected to do — by shaking the Administra- 
tion. At the ensuing election, Mr. Jefferson, at whose instancf 



JEFFERSON'S PEACE OFFERING. 269 

the entire movement was made, was chosen President by a 
very small nmjority ; Mr. Madison was placed at the head of 
his Administration as Secretary of State ; the obnoxious laws 
expired b}^ their own limitation ; and Mr. Jefferson proceeded 
to administer the Government upon constitutional principles 
quite as lax, to say the least, as those of his predecessors." 

Quite as "lax." A great many things deemed unconstitu- 
tional when out of power were found to be constitutional wheu 
in power. Indeed, when assuming the reins of government 
he said, (in his inaugural) : " Every difference of opinion is 
not a difference of principle. We have called by different 
names brethren of the same principle. We are all Republicans 
— all Federalists^ Remarkable confession when coming from 
him who, of all others, had fixed the stigma of monarchy 
and usurpation upon those just driven from the executive and 
seats of legislation. And when he added : "If there be any 
among us who would wish to dissolve this Union, or to change 
its republican form, let them stand undisturbed as monuments 
of the safety with which errors of opinion may be tolerated 
when reason is left to control it," we are constrained to ex- 
claim : " can this be the same man who, but a few months 
previously, sought to array the States against the General 
Government and Congress ?" 

In weighing all the circumstances which gave rise to the ob- 
noxious enactment, of 1798, we are surprised less at their seve- 
rity than at their moderation. It is the chronic failure of par 
tisan writers, of the Jeffersonian faith, to belittle the dangers 
which then existed and to magnify the bad character of the 
offending statutes. The truth is undeniable that, if the laws 
were proscriptive and of unmeasured severity, the provocation 
was great. Irish patriots and French revolutionists, having 
only radical conceptions of liberty, used their freedom of speech 
and of the press to villify and debase. Their papers, which 
still are preserved, are positively foul with libels and abuse ; 
Liberty to them consisted in perfect unrestraint ; old patriots 
and Federalists, for seeking to give the National Government 
power and executive force, were assailed as aristocrats, and, 
everywhery were the subjects of malignant abuse by foreigners 



270 ALIEN AND SEDITION TEOUBLES. 

many of wliom had but just landed on our shores. The entire 
foreign element conspired with the worst elements of our native 
population to discredit law and to disseminate vicious princi- 
ples of politics, public morals and religion. It was a carnival 
of license ; and if the Federalists struck boldly at the evil it 
was because the evil existed in a shape to defy all ordinary 
restraints. Let us, in passing judgment on the measures adopt- 
ed, consider the provocation offered for severity of legislation, 
ere we utter maledictions against the legislators. 



THE CONSPIRACY OF AARON BURR. 



PRECEDiisrG papers have informed the reader in regard to 
disunion intrigues in the West. Wilkinson's treasonable alli- 
ance with the Spaniards, and his labors with tongue, pen and 
Spanish gold to divorce Kentucky from its allegiance to the 
Federal Government, deeply unsettled the minds of all con- 
cerned in the Ohio valley, inspiring them with dreams of em- 
pire which it required two generations to forget. His intrigues 
were succeeded by the disloyal "democratic societies," and 
: Lese, in turn, were followed by the machinations of Genet, 
whose emissaries proposed to wrest Louisiana and Florida from 
the Spaniards. Their eloquence, their promises of vast com- 
mercial rewards, and their gold, measurably added to the dis- 
union distemper. Almost every domicil, particularly of that 
large class which lived by their wits,' became the centre of 
excitement, which first the Spanish and then the French emis- 
saries swayed to their ambitious projects. Gradually, howev- 
er, love for the Union quieted the old spirit of secession, and 
the year 1800 saw Kentucky an outwardly contented State. 
By the cession of Louisiana to the United States (1803) the 
last source of discontent was removed. The mouths of the 
Mississippi were opened to commerce, and, thenceforward, the 
boundless West only had to unloose its energies to grow into 
greatness. 

* See Hall's " Sketches of History, Life and Manners in the West," for an inte- 
resting exposition of Kentucky character at the date now under notice. A large 
numberof Kentucky settlers having pursued the life of hunters and guides, or served 
in the field under Boone, Hardin, Clarke, Scott, &c., were thoroughly infused with 
the spirit militaire, and formed, with the professional boatmen, a strong background 
for the labors of those plotting military and commercial enterprises. A more 
courageous, hardy and restless set of men never lived. 

34 






272 CONSPIRACY OF BURR. 

But, the old fires were there ; only some master spirit was 
required to set them all aflame. That Prince of Marplots, Gen- 
eral James Wilkinson, was appointed by Mr. Jefferson Govern- 
or of Louisiana, and to Louisiana the ostracised democratic 
ex-Yice President of the United States turned his eyes. Though 
a fugitive from justice, and cast from the high estate of the 
Vice Presidency to that of the outcast, Aaron Burr neither 
lost his astonishing equanimity nor forgot his subtle skill for 
intrigue ; and he turned to the West as naturally as if his 
movements had been determined in that direction for years. 

Burr, as a politician, instinctively gravitated to the " opposi- 
tion" party. His talent for dissimulation, his indifference to prin- 
ciple in politics, his innate love of intrigue, his disregard of all 
moral restraints, led him to associations with those whose ideas 
of liberty were synonymous with license. He became the con- 
fidante of Jefferson, and not only co-operated with him but 
directed for him those secret and open movements which were 
to end in their triumph. As a return he came within one 
vote of being made "republican" President of the United States. 
Jefferson only obtained the Presidency, after seven days of in- 
tense excitement, by the casting vote of a Federalist. Burr 
thereupon assumed the Vice Presidency. The history of that 
seven days' ballotting forms one of the most remarkable epi- 
sodes in our political annals. It served to divide the republi- 
cans into two factions, but, so powerful were they that, even in 
division they were stronger than their opponents, the Federal- 
ists. Burr took the second position gracefully; served his 
of&ce with ability and plotted for the Chief Magistracy quietly 
but confidently. For this reason he soon grew to be Jeffer- 
son's most powerful and most dreaded antagonist. It behooved 
the President to be rid of such a competitor for democratic fa- 
vor ; therefore all the tremendous machinery of his well or- 
ganised party system was brought to bear. Burr was out-ma- 
noeuvered and failed of a nomination at the hands of the de- 
mocracy even for the Vice Presidency.' But, not to be thwart- 

» Prior to the election of 1804 the Constitution had been so amended as to make 
the offices of Presidtint and Vice President each separately elective. Up to the 
election of 1800 the rule had been to make him President who had most electoral 



-- DEATH OF HAMILTON. 273 

ed, Burr threw himself into tne canTass, a candidate for the 
Executive chair of New York "(1804,) and must have been 
elected had not Alexander Hamilton cast his powerful local 
influence against the man whom he regarded as a dangerous 
friend and a treacherous foe. In that defeat was recorded the 
fata of Hamilton. There long had rankled in the bosom of 
Burr a hate of the great Federalist leader. Words, written 
and spoken in the heat of an unusually exciting canvass, offer- 
ed, according to the duello's code, apparent cause for a hostile 
meeting. The defeated man challenged his political enemy to 
mortal combat. By avoiding even the possibility of a settle- 
ment. Burr forced the unwilling Hamilton to place his body 
as a target for the unerring weapon of his implacable adversa- 
ry. They met July 11th, 1804. Burr, taking the most de- 
liberate aim, shot his antagonist. Hamilton did not design to 
fire, though his pistol exploded from the convulsive motion of 
his finger on the trigger when Burr's ball struck his bosom. 
Burr fled, while the execrations of a nation followed him. He 
tarried a few days in secret, in Philadelphia, to pursue an in- 
trigue with one of his many female victims ; but, the outcry 
becoming appalling even to his unfeeling heart, he sought a 
brief residence, "until the storm should pass over," in the 
Southern States, where a successful duelist ever possessed a 
passport to public and private favor. From thence he jour- 
neyed back to Washington to preside, up to March, 1805, over 
the Senate. In Virginia he had a most enthusiastic public 
reception, at a moment when two warrants were out for his 
arrest as a murderer, one in New York and one in New Jersey. 
At Washington he was received, Parton says, with more defer- 
ence than usual. The President, now beholding his antago- 
nist crushed and powerless, could afford to offer him civilities. 

votes and the second on the list Vice President. The difficulties of this rule were 
made so apparent by the seven days' contest in the House of Representatives that 
the Constitution was amended at stated. The vote in the Electoral College (ISOO) 
stood : Thomas Jefferson, 73 ; Aaron Burr, 73 ; John Adams, 65 ; C. C. Pinckney, 
64 ; John Jay, 1 — sixteen States voting. There being a tie the election was thrown 
into the House, where a tie also occurred, until, after seven days' li^dlotting, the 
vote of Bayard, Federalist, of Delaware, was cast for Jefferson. That vote made 
the President. 



274 CONSPIRACY OF BURR. 

Madison, Secretary of State, rode out with him ; Gallatin, Sec- 
retary of the Treasury, visited him freely ; a leading democra- 
tic member of the House said : " Our little David of the Eepub- 
licans has killed the Goliah of Federalism and for this I am 
willing to reward him." He was the idol of those whose hate 
of Hamilton and Federalism conquered their self-respect and 
their respect for law. At his instance Jefferson named Wil- 
kinson to the ofl&ce of Governor of Louisina. In soliciting that 
ap})ointment the Vice President was taking the initial step 
for his Western schemes. For years these two men had cor- 
responded in cypher; Burr was fully informed of the General's 
Spanish services, and, without doubt, had sounded him so far 
as to feel that, in the ex-stipendiary of Miro, he had the coad- 
jutor most to be desired. 

"When his term of ofl&ce had expired Burr's Western plans 
were so far perfected, that, had he not been detained "by some 
trifling, important concerns of business" in financial matters, 
he would have been off at once, for the West, in pursuit of his 
Utopia. 

Writing from Philadelphia to his son-in-law, Joseph Alston, 
under date of March 22d, 1805, he said : " Though in my for- 
mer letters I did not, in express terms, inform you that I was 
under ostracism, yet it must have been inferred. Such is the 
fact. In New York I am to be disfranchised, and in New Jer- 
sey hanged. Having substantial objections to both I shall not, 
for the present, hazard either, but seek another country." A 
few days later, writing to Mrs. Alston (his daughter Tbeodo- 
sia), he said: "In ten or twelve days I shall be on my way 
westward. My address, until further orders, is at Cincinnati, 
Ohio, care Hon. Jno. Smith. As the objects of this journey, 
not mere curiosity, or pour passer h terns, may lead me to Or- 
leans, and perhaps further." 

These extracts indicate first, his reason for " seeking a new 
country,"' and, second, that he had a special object in view, 
which might lead him to New Orleans, or further. Through- 
out all his correspondence, indeed, construed by the light of 
subsequent events, we find many hints and allusions which 
tend to show that he had arranged before hand, so far as he 



WILKINSON AND BURR. 275 

could so do, all the leading ideas of his secret mission down 
the Mississippi. Parton sajs : 

"A variety of projects lay half formed in Ms mind — projects of land 
speculations, of canal making, of settling in some rising city of the 
West in the practice of the law, of beginning anew his political life as 
the representative of a new State in Congress, If more ambitious 
schemes agitated him they were concealed ; neither in his diary, nor in 
his voluminous correspondence, published or unpublished, is there the 
slightest reference to any but ordinary and legitimate objects during 
the year 1805." 

All of which may be true : but, there is strong inferential 
evidence that his " ambitious schemes" were conceived in the 
Winter of 1804-5 ; that Wilkinson's appointment was one step 
toward their inauguration ; that Burr's voyage down the Ohio 
and Mississippi rivers, his visits to and proven conferences 
with influential revolutionists of the West and South, his re- 
turn by land from New Orleans to Nashville and Kentucky, 
for a second prolonged interview with men known to be ready 
for a crusade against the Spanish dominions, his journey to 
St. Louis for a further conference with Wilkinson, all are cir- 
cumstantial proofs which it is hard to rule out in making up a 
judgment in his case. The efforts made by Wilkinson and 
Matthew Lyon, member of Congress from Kentucky, to secure 
Burr's return to Congress from the Nashville district, and 
Burr's apparent endorsement of their wishes, do not militate 
against any inference which assigns to Burr a clear compre- 
hension of his work in hand. Indeed, his election from Ten- 
nessee or, as was contemplated by him — his return from New 
Orleans as a delegate to Congress — would have impeded, in no 
degree, the prosecution of his plans ; it might, on the contrary, 
have furthered them. Nothing that has been offered in evi- 
dence disproves the idea that Burr had definite designs in his 
first visit to the western country. 

On the 80th of April, 1805, Burr embarked from Pittsburg, 
on his first trip down the great river. The journey was made 
on a flatboat, well fitted for comfort and the entertainment of 
guests. The floating house dropped down stream with the 
current, striking shore at all points where its proprietor desired. 
The diary kept by him for his daughter Theodosia, and the 



276 CONSPIRACY OF BURR 

letters reprinted by Davis, in Lis "Life of Burr," give us a 
pleasing picture of people and incidents on tlie way. He was, 
in almost all instances, enthusiastically received. At Mariet- 
ta, Ohio, he landed, nominally to explore the ancient mounds 
in its vicinity, but really to come in contact with leading men 
of that old town. At Blennerhassett's island, a few miles be- 
low, he landed, apparently without design, and there first met 
with the owners of the place. By his winning discourse and 
polished manners he quite captivated the too-credulous conple 
whose fortunes were to be so intimately and disastrously affect- 
ed by their relations with the voyageure. At Cincinnati he 
found several old friends and many ardent admirers. John 
Smith, U. S. Senator from Ohio, and Jonathan Dayton, late 
U. S. Senator from New Jersey, were there to receive him and 
to participate in his counsels.' After a day's tarry at Smith's 
house the excursionist drifted on his way down to Louisville. 
There he found Matthew Lyon. From Louisville he proceed- 
ed by land to Nashville, at which city his welcome was that 
of a public guest. He was domiciled with Andrew JacksoD. 
Matthew Lyon said: "the newspapers described his arrival 
and reception there as one of the most magnificent parades 
that had ever been made at that place. They contained lists 
of toasts and great dinners given in honor of Colonel Burr, 
everybody at and near Nashville seeming to be contending for 
the honor of having best treated or served Colonel Burr." 
These demonstrations must have impressed the visitor favora- 
bly concerning the availability of the western people for use 
in his enterprises, when the hour should come to enlist them. 
Eeturning to the Ohio river in a boat supplied by Jackson, he 
found his own flatboat at the mouth of the Cumberland river. 
At Fort Massac, sixteen miles below, he not unexpectedly met 
Wilkinson. A four days' conference ensued (June 6th, 10th,) 
when Burr abandoned his slow moving ark, and, provided by 
Wilkinson " with an elegant barge, sails, colors, and ten oars, 

* Judge Burnet, in his " Notes" disclaims for Smith any knowledge of Burr'3 
designs. The Judge produces evidence which leaves a very unpleasant impression 
ou the reader's mind in regard to the conduct of the prosecutions which followed 
Burr's arrest. 



fitRR'S VISIT TO NEW ORLEANS. 277 

with a sergeant and ten able, faithful hands," the trip to New 
Orleans was accomplished by June 25th. There he tarried 
until Jul}^ 10th, in secret conference with the rich merchant 
Daniel Clark, who, it afterwards was proven, was then success- 
fully enlisted in Burr's " land speculations," and in his Mexi- 
can expedition. Burr bore a letter of introduction from Wil- 
kinson to Clark, in which it was said : "If the persecutions of 
a great and honorable man can give title to generous attentions 
he has claims to all your civilities and all your services. * * To 
him I refer you for many things improper to letter, and which 
he will not say to any other." His reception exceeded in en- 
thusiasm every demonstration yet made. Dinners, public and 
private; balls; fetes; receptions, made the guest forget the 
dead Hamilton and the persecutions he had left behind. But, 
in the midst of all those festive offerings, Burr was secretly 
busy ; and here it is that vague speculation as to his purposes 
begins to take a consistent form. What were those purposes ? 
We may give Barton's presentment as being the best yet made 
in Burr's behalf He says : 

" The question has been answered, first, by Wilkinson in his ponder- 
ous Memoirs ; secondly, by Clark in his angry octavo, entitled, ' Proofs 
of the Corruption of General James Wilkinson, and of his Connection 
with Aaron Burr ;' thirdly, by Matthew L. Davis, speaking for Burr 
himself Wilkinson says the reference in his letter of introduction, was 
simply to the election scheme. Clark declares that Burr confided no- 
thing to him whatever. He says he liked Burr exceedingly, invited 
him to dinner, showed him every possible civility, but had not a sylla- 
ble of confidential conversation with him. In the most positive and 
circumstantial manner, he denies that he had then, or ever had, any 
participation in, or knowledge of, Burr's designs.* Davis, on the con- 

* Clark's own comments on Wilkinson's letter are as follows: "The things 
which it was improper to letter to me are pretty plainly expressed in a communi- 
cation made about the same time (by Wilkinson) to General Adair. The letter is 
dated, Rapids of Ohio, May 28th, 1805, 11 o'clock, and contains these expressions : 
' I was to have introduced my friend Burr to you, but in this I failed by accident. 
He understands your merits, and reckons on you. Repair to me and I will tell 
you all. We must have a peep at the unknown world beyond me.' The letter to 
me I think fully proves that some secret plan of Burr's was known to Wilkinson in 
May, 1805. That to General Adair leaves no doubt on the subject. Immediately 
after this he went to St. Louis, where his very first act, before he had broken 
bread in the territory, was an endeavor to bring Major BruflF into his plans. He 



278 CONSPIRACY OF BUKR. 

trary, asserts that Clark and Wilkinson were both ardently engaged 
with Burr ; and that Clark agreed to advance fifty thousand dollars in 
furtherance of the great project. Other friends of Burr say that Clark 
made two voyages to Vera Cruz, to spy out the enemy's country. Clark 
admits having made the voyages (one in September, 1805, the other in 
February, 1806) ; admits having collected information in Mexico re- 
specting the strength of the fortresses, the number .of the garrisons and 
the disposition of the jjeople; but asserts that his voyages had none but 
commercial objects, and that his inquiries were only prompted by curi- 
osity. A witness deposed to having heard Clark say, that he would 
vsdllingly join in a private scheme for the conquest of Mexico, provided 
the adventurers could turn their backs for ever on the United States. 
' You, for example, might be a duke,' was one expression which the wit- 
ness swore he had heard Clark use in the course of the same conversa- 
tion. 

" My own impression, after reading all the procurable documents, is, 
that neither Clark nor Wilkinson were embarked in Burr's Mexican 
scheme ; though both, up to a certain point, may have ftivored it. Nor 
do I think that, during this visit to New Orleans, Burr himself did more 
than collect information, and cast a very wistful eye across the river to 
the domain of the hated Spaniards, who still held the western bank of 
the Mississippi." 

Having accomplished the first objects of his mission, and 
satisfied himself that New Orleans was ripe for any coup detat 
he might determine upon, Burr proceeded by land to Nash- 
ville by way of Natchez, reaching General Jackson's hospitable 
home August 6th, where he remained one week — the recipi- 
ent of attentions, public and private, of the most flattering 
character. He then journeyed into Kentucky by way of 
Frankfort and Lexington, evidently "feeling" of men and pub- 
lic opinion. From Louisville he directed his steps to St. Louis, 
for another conference with Wilkinson. The General, in his 
account of that interview, afterwards said : 

" Burr seemed to be revolving some great project, the nature of which 
he did not disclose. Speaking of the imbecility of the Government, 
Colonel Burr said : 'it would molder to pieces, die a natural death," or 
words to that effect; adding 'that the people of the Western country 
were ready for revolt.' To this I recollect replying, that if he had not 

tells him that he had a 'grand scheme,^ that ' would make the fortunes of all con- 
cerned ;' and though Major Bruflf's manner of receiving this overture put a stop to 
any further disclosures, jet we may judge of its nature, for it was introduced by a 
philippic against democracy, and the ingratitude of republican goveraments." 



Wilkinson's duplicity. 279 

profited more by his journey, he had better have reruained at Washing- 
ton or Philadelphia. For surely, said I, my friend, no person Avas ever 
more mistaken ! The Western people disaffected to the Government ? 
They are bigoted to Jefferson and democracy ! and the conversation 
dropped." 

This would appear, upon its face, to exculpate Wilkinson 
from all previous knowledge of Burr's schemes, and go to de- 
monstrate that he (W.) was a patriotic devotee of the Union. 
A knowledge of the man, however — as learned from his prior 
services in behalf of the Spaniards — and the fact that from 
that time (Sept. 1805) to the following May, six cypher letters 
were written by Burr to him, every one of which were in the 
highest degree confidential and important, prove to us that 
Wilkinson acted in his old character of dissimulator in his 
record of what passed at the interview held at St. Louis. Davis 
says : 

" The great object of Burr was the conquest of Mexico. With this 
view he conferred with General Wilkinson, who was ardent in the cause. 
Wilkinson's regular force, about six hundred men, was intended as a 
nucleus, around which the followers of Burr were to form. They were 
the only disciplined corps that could be expected. As W. was the 
American Commander-in-Chief (General-in-Chief) and stationed upon 
the borders of Mexico, he possessed the power and was pledged to strike 
the blow whenever it should be deemed exj^edient. This commence- 
ment of the war would thus have been apparently under the sanction 
and authority of the American Government, and would have drawn to 
the standard of Burr numerous volunteers from the Western States. 
Such, undoubtedly, was the plan; Burr entertained no suspicion of 
Wilkinson's treachery toward him until his interview with Swartwout. " 

This is true. Burr wrote in reassured confidence to Wilkin- 
son, acted in confidence, concerted in confidence, until first 
informed of his (W.'s) treachery by the issue of Jefferson s 
proclamation for his (Burr's) apprehension, Nov. 27th, 1806. 
Probably no word, no hint, no act oi the General, ever gave 
the watchful Burr even a suspicion of treachery. 

From St. Louis Burr proceeded eastward, by way of Yin- 
cennes, there calling u.pon General William Henry Harrison. 
He reached Washington early in November, and at once en- 
tered upon an elaborate system of intrigue, calculated to enlist 
in his projects some of the most trusty men in the army and 
85 



280 CONSPIRACY OF BURR. 

navj. The moment seemed propitious. A war witn Spain 
threatened. The Dons beyond the Mississippi (west side) and 
on the Sabine, had committed many acts calculated to arouse 
the western people to a war of extermination. Everywhere 
throughout the West Burr found a spirit of intense rancor pre- 
vailing against the Spanish, who yet retained several impor- 
tant posts in the old Louisiana territory as well as in Florida. 
For several years prior to 1805 the people were only restrained 
from proceeding to extremities with their Eoman Catholic 
neighbors by the constant vigilance of the authorities at the 
National Capital. Burr ever had been an advocate of a deter- 
mined course toward the crown of Spain — for which reason 
he was greeted with favor ; and his visit to the West, during 
1805, was regarded by the people as having something to do 
with the foreigners on our borders. Jefferson, apprehending 
the resentment of France in event of a war with Spain, had 
pursued a policy characterized by timidity and deference to the 
power of Napoleon ; but, so great became the causes of com- 
plaint, during 1805, that, in his messages of Dec. 8d-9th, 1805, 
the President was constrained to use strong terms of denunci- 
ation. When Burr arrived from the West it was to find the 
war spirit running high — so high, indeed, that, for months, a 
declaration of hostilities was daily expected. He seemed to 
read his future by the light of the fires then kindled. That he 
labored assiduously to gather resources for his majestic plans 
of conquest, we can well imagine. If before he had conceived 
a stroke for Mexico feasible, it now seemed near its realization 
under auspices of a state of actual war. His plans took a 
wider range, or, what had been merely dreams of power, be- 
came established principles of action, if we may credit his rev- 
elations to General Eaton, to which reference will hereafter be 
made. Having been "dined" by Jefierson, and treated with 
distingaished consideration by the authorities at Washington, 
he left the new Capital, with its sparse population and its 
dreary distances, to take up headquarters in ' the old Capital, 
Philadelphia, then the recognized social and political centre. 
He rented a small house in a retired part of the city that he 
might pursue his labors unobserved, and, being divorced from 



EEVELATIONS TO EATON. 281 

Bociety, could devote his entire time to labor. The little 
dwelling ere long became a rendezvous for men of high and 
low degree, whom the Conspirator received, in almost all in- 
stances, singly. Captivating in manner, gifted with wonderful- 
ly seductive powers of speech, using fact, fancy and fabrication 
in a way to confound every opposing circumstance or element, 
he had no difficulty in gathering to his net great numbers of 
the adventurous spirits, willing to stake fortune, honor and 
happiness on his cast. He had a special word for all. Each 
visitor, regarding himself sole confidant of the wily ex- Vice 
President, withdrew from the little dwelling to labor in his be- 
half, or to preserve the secret of the enterprise proposed until 
the propitious moment. And yet, it is quite certain that Burr 
committed to none, if we except General Eaton, the daring 
purposes which apparently underlaid his adventure. He wrote 
much and talked little, scarcely appearing in public. Even 
his most trusted political partisans were ignorant of the grand 
designs revolving and perfecting in his busy brain. To them 
he still was the political intriguant, planning, devising, schem- 
ing for their own as well as for his own advancement. Mis- 
sions, embassies, local offices were talked of for him, while he, 
in turn, used his influence to obtain those places for others. 
He thus appeared in a two-fold character, ready for political 
place and power, but never for one moment deserting the daz- 
zling object of his ambition — the conquest of Spanish do- 
minions. 

Confidant, at length, of ultimate success in that direction, 
the conspirator dropped his mask for a moment and broke the 
seal of secrecy to General Eaton, then late U. S. Consul to 
Tripoli. This individual, having planned the romantic expe- 
dition against Derne, was upon the point of seeing his work 
consummated, when a treaty, unexpectedly concluded with 
Tripoli, dashed his hopes and ended his labors. He returned 
to the United States quite out of temper with Government for 
its inefficient conduct of the Tripolitan war and for its neglect 
of his claims for monies expended in the Derne enterprisa 
BuiT approached him, doubtless conceiving the high spirited 
man ready for a second adventure promising rewards commen- 



282 CONSPIRACY OF BURR. 

surate "with his merits as a dashing leader and with the claims 
of his broken pecuniary fortunes. As we learn from Eaton's 
testimony, given at the trial of Burr, the ex-Yice President 
approached him first with propositions to embark in the expe- 
dition against Mexico, into which he (Eaton) enlisted, under- 
standing that it was countenanced by the Administration, with 
whom Burr still sustained cordial relations. After having se- 
cured the General's consent to the invasion adventure, Burr, 
so Eaton testified, finally developed a project for revolution- 
izing the Western country, establishing a monarchy, organi- 
zing a force of ten or twelve thousand volunteers ; when, hav- 
ing secured the co-operation of the marine corps at Washington 
and gaining over Truxton, Preble, Decatur and others, he in- 
tended to turn Congress out of doors, assassinate the President, 
seize on the Treasury and Navy, and declare himself the Pro- 
tector of an energetic government ! All of this extraordinary 
programme Eaton swore was clearly and unequivocally de- 
tailed to him. Wilkinson was declared by Burr to be a party 
to the scheme — was to bring over to it his army in the West 
and South, and was to act as General-in-Chief, while Eaton 
was to have the second command. 

As Eaton, according to his own testimony, expressed abhor- 
rence of this revolutionary plot, and utterly refused to partici- 
pate in it, the question naturally occurs why did he not at 
once divulge the matter ? He was under no bond to secrecy. 
He had position enough to sustain his word against that of 
Burr, should the latter deny the impeachment. The excuse 
offered was that he was fearful to put his own reputation for 
veracity against that of the Conspirator ; yet, he confesses to 
have advised with Jefferson in regard to a foreign appointment 
for Burr ! We may quote from the testimony : 

" Ou the solitai'y ground upon whicli I stood, I was at a loss how to 
conduct myself, though at no loss as respected my duty. I durst not 
place my lonely testimony in the balance against the weight of Colonel 
Burr's character ; for, by turning the tables upon me, which I thought 
any nian, capable of such a project, was very capable of doing, I should 
sink under the weight. I resolved, therefore, with myself to obtain the 
removal of Mr. Burr from this country in a way honorable to him ; and 
on this I did consult him, without his knowing my motive. According- 



GENERAL EATON's TESTIMONY. 283 

ly, I waited on the President of the United States, and after a desultory 
conversation, in which I aimed to draw his view to the westward, I 
took the liberty of suggesting to the President that I thought Colonel 
Burr ought to be removed from the country, because I considered him 
dangerous in it. The President asked where we should send him ? 
Other places might have been mentioned, but I believe that Paris, Lon- 
don and Madrid, were the places which were particularly named. The 
President, without positive exjDression (in such a matter of delicacy), 
signified that the trust was too imi^ortant, and expressed something 
like a doubt about the integi-ity of Mr. Burr. I frankly told the Pres- 
ident that perhaps no person had stronger grounds to suspect that 
integrity than I had ; but that I believed his pride of ambition had 
so predominated over his other passions, that when placed on an 
eminence, and put on his honor, a respect to himself would secure 
his fidelity, I perceived that the subject was disagreeable to the 
President, and to bring him to my point in the shortest mode, and 
at the same time point out the danger, I said to him that I expect- 
ed that we should in eighteen months have an insurrection, if not a 
revolution, on the waters of the Mississij^pi. The President said he 
had too much confidence in the information, the integrity, and at- 
tachment to the Union of the citizens of that country, to admit any 
apprehensions of that kind. The circumstance of no interrogatories 
being made to me, I thought imx)osed silence upon me at that time 
and place." 

Commodore Truxton confessed to having had propositions 
from Burr to embark in a scheme, " legitimate in war," as B. 
averred, against Mexico — that nothing more was proposed. 
Upon Eaton's testimony and that of the Morgan's, hereafter 
mentioned, stands the charge of treason and revolution,* 

During the winter and spring several letters passed between 
Burr and Wilkinson in cypher — all containing allusions more 

1 In the cross examination this testimony of Eaton's was so skilfully ventilated 
by Burr as to cast suspicion upon its truthfulness. Just after the arrest of 
Burr and the strange proceedings in New Orleans of Wilkinson in suspending the 
writ of habeas corpus, incarcerating persons suspected of being able to testlfyj &c. — 
all of which was understood to have been done with Jefferson's approbation, if not 
by his direct orders — Eaton received ten thousand dollars from Government as in- 
demnity for his Barbary losses. It was in the midst of excitements caused by 
Wilkinson's proceedings that he came forward with published affidavits to expose 
Burr. His statements tended, of course, to create a public sentiment against Burr, 
and to sustain the conduct of Wilkinson. That the money paid to him had any 
thing to do in eliciting his testimony is not probable. The money had long been 
due. 



284 CONSPIKACT OF BURR. 

or less direct to their plans, yet too obscure or general in terms 
to afford any clue as to their exact significance. One thing 
they did prove — that Wilkinson was deeply concerned in what- 
ever was proposed. No effort of his friends, no confidence of 
the Administration in his patriotism and fidelity, could white- 
wash from his Gubernatorial and military escutcheon the stains 
of these mysteriously confidential notes. We may quote from 
one written in the spring of 1806 : 

" The execution of our project is postponed till December. Want of 
water in Ohio rendered movement impracticable : other reasons ren- 
dered delay expedient. The association is enlarged, and comprises 
all that Wilkinson could wish. Confidence limited to a few. Though 
this delay is irksome, it will enable us to move with more certainty 
and dignity. Burr, will be throughout the United States this summer. 
Administration is damned, which Randoljih aids. Burr wrote you a 
long letter last December, replying to a short one deemed very silly. 
Nothing has been heard from the Brigadier (Wilkinson) since October, 
Is Cusion (Colonel Cushing) et Portes (Major Porter) right ? Address, 
Burr, at Washington." 

Parton observes : " That Wilkinson hneiv what Burr propos- 
ed, I cannot doubt ; but that he had unequivocally engaged to 
join in the projected speculation, is a question upon which 
there may be two well sustained opinions." 

It is hardly possible to conceive that he knew what Burr 
proposed and yet did not lend himself to the scheme fully. 
All collateral evidence goes to show that he did engage in the 
" speculation," and that Burr, when he stated to Eaton, Trux- 
ton and others that Wilkinson was enlisted in the enterprise 
as first in military command, spoke authoritatively. We are 
not disposed, knowing what we now do in regard to that Gen- 
eral-in-Chief's duplicity, even to ascribe to Burr the chief merit 
of the Mexican enterprise : Burr's only originality in the mat- 
ter appears to have been his superadded idea of annexing the 
Western States of the Union to his Spanish estate, with a re- 
mote possibility of turning the Government at Washington 
out of doors. Matthew Davis says : 

" Daniel Clarke, of New Orleans, entered into the Mexican project. 
He engaged to advance fifty thousand dollars ; but subsequently, from 
disappointments, he was unable to fill his contract. General Wilkinson 
detailed to Colonel Burr all the information he possessed respecting that 



THE MISSION TO MEXICO. 285 

country, and pointed out the facilities which would probablj' be afford- 
ed by the inhabitants in effecting a revolution. Without Wilkinson's 
troops, Burr declared most solemnly, a short time before his death, that 
he would not have made the attempt on Mexico ; that he was perfectly 
aware the men he would collect, so far as it respected military opera- 
tions, would be at first little better than a mob. 

Colonel Burr had repeated conferences on the subject with Mr. Merry, 
the British Plenipotentiary resident in the United States. Mr. Merry 
communicated to his government the project of Mr. Burr. Colonel 
Charles Williamson, the brother of Lord Balgray, went to England on 
the business, and, from the encouragement which he received, it was 
hoped and believed that a British naval squadron would have been 
furnished in aid of the expedition. At this juncture Mr. Pitt died. 
Wilkinson must have heard of the death of the premier late in the 
spring or early in the summer of 1806. From this moment, in IVIr. Burr'a 
opinion, Wilkinson became alarmed, and resolved on an abandonment 
of the enterprise at the sacrifice of his associates. 

" On the suggestion of Wilkinson, Mexico was twice visited by Dan- 
iel Clark. He held conferences and effected arrangements -nath many 
of the principal militia officers, who engaged to favor the revolution. 
The Catholic bishop, resident at New Orleans, was also consulted, and 
prepared to promote the enterprise. He designated three priests of the 
order of Jesuits, as suitable agents, and they were accordingly employed. 
The bishop was an intelligent and social man. He had been in Mexico, 
and spoke with great freedom of the dissatisfaction of the clergy in 
South America. The religious establishments of the country were not 
to be molested. Madame Xavier Tarjcon, superior of the convent of 
Ursuline nuns at New Orleans, was in the secret. Some of the sister- 
hood were also employed in Mexico. So far as any decision had been 
formed, the landing was to have been effected at Tampico." 

A careful study of the testimony adduced at Burr's Eich- 
raond trial, and by subsequent developments, leads us to the 
belief that Wilkinson himself led Colonel Burr on to these 
plans of conquest, taking the initiative, so far as he dared to, 
in missions to Mexico, and in intrigues in the South, His (Ws) 
own testimony to the contrary, as written out in his " Memoirs," 
has but little weight, in our mind, where not sustained by cor- 
roborative or collateral evidence of a conclusive nature — such 
is our want of faith in the man's integrity. When we reflect 
upon the proofs now existing of his duplicity and dishonesty, 
it seems incredible that he should have won and retained the 
confidence of Thomas Jefferson, President of the United States. 



286 CONSPIRACY OF BURR. 

If Jefferson's enemies make use of his intimate relations with 
Tom Paine, Wilkinson and other men of blunted moral per- 
ceptions, to prove his own indifference to moral principles, thej 
certainly are not without strong grounds, at least inferential, 
of justification. It is the application of Esop's haecfabula docet 
in the fable of the goose and the buzzards. 

Burr's movements in the spring and summer of 1806 were 
governed by our relations with Spain. An actual state of war 
would legitimise his operations. He could then proceed openly 
in his plans so far as the invasion of Mexico was concerned. 
"As spring advanced," says Parton, "affairs in the South-west 
looked more and more threatenmg. The Spaniards added ag- 
gression to insolence. It had been agreed between the two 
governments, that until the boundary line should be settled 
by negotiation, each party should retain its posts, but establish 
no new ones, nor make any military movements whatever 
within the limits in dispute. But, after making several petty 
encroachments, the Spanish commander, early in June, ad- 
vanced a force of twelve hundred men to within twenty miles 
of Nachitoches Instantly, General Wilkinson took measures 
for the defense of the frontier. He had only six hundred reg- 
ulars under his command, most of whom were hurried forward 
to the scene of expected warfare. ' The forts of New Orleans 
were hastily repaired. Every militiaman in the West was 
furbishing his accoutrements, and awaiting the summons to 
the field. On the 4th of Julj, 1806, there were not a thou- 
sand persons in the United States who did not think war with 
Spain inevitable, impending, begun ! The country desired it. 
A blow from Wilkinson, a word from Jefferson, would have 
let loose the dogs of war, given us Texas, and changed the 
history of the two continents." 

But, the war did not follow, nevertheless. Pitt, the British 
Prime Minister, having died, (Jan. 6th, 1806,) Napoleon was, 
for the moment, doubly reassured as master of the situation : 
— a stroke upon our part against Spain was to incur his hos- 
tility—a contingency which Mr. Jefferson did not care to ac- 
cept. Hence, no aggressive step followed ; Wilkinson's me- 
nace on the Sabine was that and nothing more. 



THE BASTROP PURCHASE. 287 

Pitt's death, as stated by Mattliew Davis, was a severe blow 
to Burr's arrangements, dashing, as it did, all hopes of British 
nav^al operations against Vera Cruz and Tampico, These sev- 
eral disappointments, it would appear, directed Burr's mind 
more strongly to his second resource, viz.: the purchase of an 
immense body of land in the South-west, where to gather his 
forces, to intrigue and arrange for his Spanish invasion at his 
leisure. Davis says : " Previous to the cession of Louisiana to 
the United States, Baron P. N. Tut Bastrop contracted with 
the Spanish Government for a tract of land exceeding thirty 
miles square near Nachitoches. By the terms of the contract 
he was, within a given period of time, to settle upon these 
lands two hundred families. Subsequently Colonel Charles 
Lynch made an arrangement with Bastrop for an interest in 
this contract. Burr purchased from Lynch nearly four hun- 
dred thousand acres, lying between the Sabine and Nachito- 
ches. On the trial at Eichmond this purchase was established, 
and the actual payment to Lynch by Burr of five thousand 
dollars was also proved." 

General Adair, however, intimates that it was not until after 
the discovery, by Burr, of Wilkinson's defection, in the fall of 
1806, that he "turned his attention altogether towards strength- 
ening himself on the Wachita,* and waiting a more favorable 
crisis." This doubtless is true as qualified: " turned his at- 
tention altogether^'' Adair says ; prior to that tilne it was the 
'■'second string to his bow," artfully used to cover his real pur- 
poses. Of this purchase, made in July, 1806, Davis writes : 

" The grant of the Sjjanisli government to Bastrop amounted to 
1,300,000 acres. Six-tenths of this grant was conveyed to Colonel 

* There is great discrepancy in the location of this purchase. Davis expressly 
states the Pastrop cession to have been a tract of land thirty miles square near 
Nachitoches, and that Burr's purchase of Lynch was four hundred thousand acres 
lying between the Sabine and Nachitoches. General Adair refers to the estate as on 
the Wachita river, which lies considerably to the east of Nachitoches, and Parton 
refers to it in general terms as " far to the South-west, beyond the Mississippi, on 
the banks of the river Wachita, a branch of the Red river." The correct location 
is thus given by Hildreth : " Situate on the upper waters of the Wachita, not many 
miles distant from the left bank of the Mississippi, /?«< below the mouth of the Arkan- 
sas river.^^ This places the lands many leagues away from the Sabine country, to the 
went of Nachitoches, to which Davis consigned the Bastirop purchase. 

36 



288 CONSPIRACY OF BURR. 

Lynch, and cost him about one hundred thousand dollars. As the time 
within which two hundred families were to be settled on the land was 
rapidly drawing to a close, Lynch conveyed one half his right to Burr 
for fifty thousand dollars. In this purchase many private citizens of 
worth and respectability were interested. The two projects, however, 
became in some degree blended." 

In regard to the " many private citizens of wortli and re- 
spectability" here referred to, Parton sftys : 

" In this purchase, several persons participated, most of whom were 
near relatives or connections of Burr. One of his relatives in Connecti- 
cut, a descendant of Jonathan Edwards, advanced a great part of his 
savings for this purchase. Mr. Alston, probably, furnished money ; it 
is certain he endorsed paper for his father-in-law. Burr's connections 
in New York were not backward in aiding him. From one source and 
another, a sum was raised which, as I conjecture, did not exceed forty 
thousand dollars, though more was to be forthcoming when needed. 

" Who were his confederates ? Before aU others, his daughter, M'ho 
was devoted to the scheme heart and soul. To achieve a career, and a 
residence, which she, her husband, and her boy could share, were the 
darling objects with which Burr had gone forth to seek a new country. 
She caught eagerly at his proposal. She saw in it the means whereby 
her father could win a glorious compensation for the wrongs she felt he 
had endured, and obtain a conspicuous triumph over all his enemies. 
Her husband, whose mind Burr had aided to form, and who tenderly 
loved Theodosia, entered into the enterprise with energy. In New York, 
it found adherents among the young ambitious men who had surround- 
ed him in the days of his glory. The Swartwouts were in it. Marinas 
Willet, who was afterward Mayor of New York, was one of its promot- 
ers. A score or two of other New Yorkers were involved in a greater 
or less degree. Doctor Erich Bollman, a German, who had distinguish- 
ed himself by a gallant attempt to rescue Latiiyette from prison, was 
one of Burr's most trusted confederates, Dayton was another. Colonel 
Dupiester was one of the leading spirits. General Jackson, a thorough- 
going hater of Spaniards, was enthusiastic in the cause. General Adair, 
of Kentucky, deep in Burr's confidence, approved his plans heartily, but 
was not personally engaged in them. Blennerhassett was completely 
captivated by an enterprise which was to enrich him and his children 
without his being subjected to disagreeable exertion. Upon his island 
the first rendezvous was to be made. Mrs. Blennerhassett, no less ar- 
dent, was preparing to entertain the chief and his daughter at her fan- 
tastic mansion ; for it was settled that Theodosia should accompany 
her father, and that both she and Mrs. Blennerhassett should go with 
the expedition as far as Natchez or New Orleans ; there to await the 
issue. Alston was to follow in a few weeks. Probably five hundred 



burr's journey to the west. 289 

persons in all, knew something of Burr's plans, and had entered into 
some kind of engagement to follow his fortunes. There were, also, four 
or five thousand whose names were on Burr's lists, and who, he thought, 
would hasten to his standard, as soon as he should obtain a fooihold on 
Spanish soil." 

There can, then, be no question of the immense influence 
which Burr wielded : that he should have embarked so many 
persons of ability and good character in his projects is a con 
elusive tribute to his tact, his industry and his profound dis- 
simulation. 

Burr was not ready to move before the latter part of July. 
Previous to starting from Philadelphia he wrote in cypher to 
Wilkinson a communication detailing the processes of the plot, 
quite minutely, betraying to his coadjutor the full extent of 
his contemplated work, and the programme for its execution. 
This most interesting and important letter he dispatched by 
the hands of two couriers, Samuel Swartwout, and a son of 
Matthew Ogden, of New Jersey. The two young men pro- 
ceeded West by way of Pittsburg to St Louis, where Burr 
supposed Wilkinson still to be. Bat, tbe General-in-Chief 
was not there : he was down in Lower Louisiana, at Nachito- 
ches — a fact which materially affected the consummation of the 
concerted movement — Burr having arranged to have him 
(W.) move down the Mississippi, as a distinct section of the 
expedition. We shall see how the presence of Wilkinson in 
Louisiana, in advance of Burr's coming, caused the explosion 
of the whole enterprise. 

Six days after the couriers left, Burr started for Pittsburg, 
accompanied by Theodosia, Colonel Dupeister and two others. 
His departure from the East excited comparatively little at- 
tention, nor did the gossips " snuff the air" until two months 
Iti.er, when word came back from the West of the din of pre- 
paration on the Ohio river which followed his advent. A 
newspaper printed at Lexington, Kentucky, called the Western 
Worlds edited by Wood, historian of " John Adams' Admin- 
istration," first sounded the alarm. Becoming confident that 
some grand scheme of revolution was afoot. Wood and his 
friends (among whom were Humphrey Marshall and Jo Da- 
viess) zealously struck at those supposed to be in command, 



290 CON-SPIRACY OF BURR. 

unveiling as much of the old Spanish intrigues of Wilkinson, 
Sebastian, Innis and others as could be dragged to the light 
Hence, soon after Burr reached the Ohio country he found 
himself suspected by the then few persons who still preserved 
their Federalism, and connected their old distrust of the ends 
and aims of " democratic societies" with the new movements. 
A '' democratic" paper at Pittsburg, the Commonwealth^ imme- 
diately after Burr's appearance in the West opened its columns 
to a discussion of Western claims to independency, laboring 
zealously to enkindle the old Whiskey insurrection spirit. 
These articles soon were responded to by a series published in 
the Ohix) Gazette^ printed at Chilicothe, then the State capital, 
over the signature of " Querist," furnished by Blennerhasset 
but afterwards ascribed to the tireless pen of Burr. "Querist" 
labored to show the necessity for separation from the Union 
east of the mountains, and to establish a Confederation compos- 
ed of States west of the Alleghanies, embracing also as much 
of the South as should give the new Confederacy entire con- 
trol of the Mississippi and the Gulf ports. By September 1st 
the public mind in Kentucky and Ohio was thoroughly arous- 
ed, and Aaron Burr's name was linked with e\Qvj report of 
disunion and the conquest of Spanish dominion. 

Wilkinson, though afar off in Louisiana, heard these mutter- 
ings on the Ohio ; his name was connected with the indefinable 
greatness coming. It is quite probable that, then weighing the 
chances of promotion and honor in the scale, he resolved to 
break with Burr, and, by defeating his projects, to win the 
reputation of a deliverer. 

Burr, floating down the Ohio, stopped at points indicated in 
his lists as favorable for securing recruits. A visit was paid 
to old Colonel Morgan, the Eevolutionary patriot and pioneer, 
living, with his two sons, near Cannonsburg, Ohio. It was the 
Conspirator's design to secure the Colonel and his boys to his 
interest ; but, over confident from his hitherto almost uniform 
success, he found, in the old man's home, hearts which he could 
not move. Morgan was a friend of Burr, sympathising with 
hmi in the Hamilton duel affair. The sons were sent forward 
by tlie father to conduct their august guest to the farm house. 



COLONEL morgan's TESTIMONY. 291 

On the road Burr opened liis mind to one of tlie young men in 
a manner at once startling and confounding. He stated tliat 
the Union was near its dissolution, and that it ought to fail — that 
the West having no interests in common with the East, should 
set up for itself He also made minute inquiries concerning 
the militia of the county, their disposable foi'ce, arms, &e. 
This conversation was the preliminary of what followed after 
dinner. Morgan's testimony taken at the Eichmond trial we 
may repeat, in part : 

" Colonel Burr said, that -with two hundred men he could drive Con- 
gress, with the President at its head, into the river Potomac ; or that it 
might be done ; and he said with five hundred men, he could take pos- 
session of New York. He appealed to Colonel Dupiester, if it could 
not be done : he nodded assent. There was a reply made to this by 
one by my sons, that he would be damned if they could take our little 
town of Cannonsburg with that force. Some short time after this, 
Colonel Burr went out from the dining-room to the passage, and beck- 
oned to my son Thomas. What their conversation was, I cannot say 
soon after, a walk was proposed to my son's mill, and the comi^any 
went out. When they returned, one (or both of my sons) came to cau- 
tion me, and said : ' You may depend upon it. Colonel Burr will thif 
night open himself to you. He wants Tom to go with him.' After the 
usual conversation, Colonel Burr went up stairs, and, as I thought, to 
go to bed. Mrs. Morgan was reading to me (as is usual, when the iam- 
ily have retired), when about eleven o'clock, and after I had supposed 
he had been an hour in bed, she told me that Colonel Burr was coming 
down, and as she had heard my son's conversation, she added, ' You'll 
have it now.' Colonel Burr came down with a candle in his hand. Mrs, 
Morgan immediately retired. The Colonel took his seat by me. He 
drew from his pocket a book. I suppose it was a memorandum-book. 
After looking at it, he asked me if I knew a Mr. Vigo, of Fort Vincent, 
a Si^aniard. I replied, yes ; I knew him ; I had reasons to know him. 
One was that I had reasons to believe that he was deeply involved in 
the British conspiracy of 1798, as I supposed; the object of which was 
to separate the States; and which General Neville and myself had sap- 
pressed. I called it a nefarious thing to aim at the division of the States. 
I was careful to put great emphasis on the word '"nefarious!' Colonel 
Burr, finding what kind of a man he had to deal with, suddenly stopped, 
thrust into his pocket the book which I saw had blank leaves in it, and 
retired to bed. I believe I was pretty well understood. The next mor- 
ning Colonel Burr and Colonel Dupiester went off before breakfast, 
without my expecting it." 

The old patriot, anxious and dissatisfied, proceeded to town 



292 CONSPIRACY OF BURR. 

and returned witli two judges from the Court then ia session 
there. To these he detailed minutely all the circumstances of 
Burr's visit. A letter thereupon was drawn up, directed to 
the President of the United States, giving information in re- 
gard to the matter and suggesting that the adventurer be 
closely watched. That letter, Mr. Jefferson stated, was the 
first intimation which he had of Burr's designs. In his special 
message of Jan. 22d, 1807, he said that, in the latter part of 
September he had "received intimations that designs were in 
agitation in the Western country, unlawful and unfriendly to 
the peace of the Union." " It was not," he further said, " till 
the latter part of October that the objects of the conspiracy 
began to be perceived, but still so blended and involved in 
mystery that nothing distinct could be singled out for pursuit." 
Having then had the Cannonsburg letter at least one month he 
adopted the suggestion to watch Burr's movements, and dis- 
patched a confidential agent thither, who, of course, did not 
reach Ohio until far in November. The President certainly 
was not ignorant of affairs in the West up to the dates men- 
tioned. Who better than himself was informed of the work- 
ing of the disunion elements in Kentucky ? Who can doubt 
that copies of the Western World and of the Pittsburg Common- 
loealth were quicklj placed in his hands? The vigilant Jo 
Daviess we know kept the President " posted" ; and, knowing 
all about Aaron Burr's movements, it is rather singular, to say 
the least, that no steps were taken then to arrest the schemer's 
programme. It is highly probable that the President, approv- 
ing of Governor Shelby's version of the Constitutional right 
for American citizens to filibuster [see pages 237-38], prefer- 
red to wait until Burr had openly rendered himself amenable 
to arrest before proceeding to extremity. After he did let 
loose the thunders of the law upon the little Conspirator, all 
" Executive usurpations" of Washington and Adams were put 
to shame by the rigors of Jefferson's patriotic frenzy. 

Leaving Morgan's place Burr proceeded to Marietta, where 
he found the militia attending a "general training." Eiding 
to the field he exercised the men in evolutions and made a fine 
impression. At a ball given that evening the beautiful Theo- 



PREPAEATIONS. 293 

dosia mingled witli tlie motley throng in tlie dance and con- 
firmed the good impression made by the father. It soon was 
noised around that the ex- Vice President was en route for a 
new realm, and that he would accept volunteers. The idea 
was given that, in his proceedings, Burr had the sanction of 
his Government, which left all persons a,t liberty to second his 
movements, and Marietta soon became the centre of military 
activity, in forwarding and directing of which Herman Blen- 
nerhasset soon became the responsible agent. This credulous 
Irishman and his ambitious lady had not seen Burr for a year, 
but, by correspondence, had arranged to embark in his adven- 
ture — never dreaming for a moment, it was afterwards testified, 
that treason lay lurking in the background. Barton says : 

" Leaving his daugbter upon Blennerliassett Island, Burr bent all his 
powers to preparing for the expedition. Contracts for fifteen large bat- 
teaux, to be capable of transporting five hundred men, were entered in- 
to ^at Marietta, and the work forthwith began. Quantities of flour, 
park and meal were purchased. On the island kilns were constructed 
for drying the com. Men were daily added to the rolls, They appear 
to have been engaged for an object which was to be explained to them 
afterwards, but were all to come equipped and armed, and to each was 
promised, as part of the compensation for his services, one hundred 
acres of land on the Wachita. Blennerhassett was busy enough. To 
prepare the Western mind for future contingencies, he wrote a series of 
articles in a neighboring newspaper, in which the advantages of a sepa- 
ration of the Western States from the Eastern were discussed and exhfl)- 
ited. His island resounded with the din of preparation. Mrs. Blenner- 
hassett, happy in the society of Theodosia, full of confidence in her 
father's talents, was all aglow with pleasant expectation. Burr was 
everywhere; now at Marietta; now at Chillicothe; then at Cincinnati; 
through Kentucky and Tennessee ; everywhere gaining adherents, and 
enlarging his acquaintance with men of influence ; received always as 
the great man. Six boats were set building on the Cumberland, and 
four thousand dollars deposited with General Jackson to pay for them. 
In October, Mr. Alston arrived, and soon after, he, Theodosia and Blen- 
nerhassett, journeyed, by easy stages, to Lexington, in Kentucky, leaving 
the energetic wife of Blennerhassett upon the island, to superintend the 
great concerns there going forward. On their journey they found the 
country full of rumors respecting Burr, and some scheme he was saiil to 
have in hand ; but they also observed that these rumors were generally 
believed to be groundless ; and attributed to the malice of Burr's old 
enemies, the Federalists." 



294 CONSPIRACY OF BURR. 

Taking advantage of this near approacli of Burr, the United 
States Attornej'- for tlie District of Kentucky, Jo Daviess, re- 
solved to face public opinion, and, without instructions from 
Washington, to call Burr into court to answer the charge of 
being engaged in an enterprise contrary to the laws of the 
United States and designed to injure a power with which the 
Federal Government was at peace. The motion was made 
Nov. 3d, in the District Court at Frankfort, before Judge Tu- 
nis — one of Wilkinson's confreres in Spanish intrigue. This 
motion fell like a thunder clap upon the public ear. Any 
other man than Jo Daviess must have quailed before the fury 
it invoked from seven-eighths of the people. But, the heart of 
that remarkable wild -woods' lawyer was of too stern stuff to 
shrink from duty. He read Burr and despised him. Burr 
read Daviess and feared him, but, with his usual effrontery, 
prepared to meet the danger. The motion, after two days re- 
sei-ve for consideration, was denied; but, Burr was quickl}^ on 
hand to challenge an examination. With surprising self-pos- 
session he asked the Judge to grant the motion, in order that 
it might not trouble him at another moment. It was a master 
stroke, which gave the little man the vantage ground of an 
overwhelming public sympathy; but Daviess gladly closed 
with the proposition and set his day for a hearing, feurr was 
present at the appointed time (the Wednesday succeeding Nov. 
5th). Much to his chagrin, Daviess had to ask for an exten- 
sion of time. John Floyd, an important witness, was absent, 
and Nov. 25th was fixed upon for the hearing. What a mo- 
ment in whi-ch to try the nerves of the immobile Conspirator ! 
Time so precious to him — so all-important for success, thus to 
be wasted in awaiting the attendance of witnesses ! What 
might not happen before Nov. 25th ? Word having flown from 
Ohio to Washington an order for his arrest might arrive ere 
that time, and thus dash his prospects forever. By that time 
the State authorities might become aware of his deception in 
assuming that he acted with the consent of the Federal autho- 
rities, and, by siezing his flotilla, strip him of every resource. 
Yet, he betrayed not a single sign of impatience or of uneasi- 
ness. He addressed the Court at some length. " He bo]ied 



AVOWALS TO CLAY, JACKSON. &C. 295 

the good people of Kentucky would dismiss tlieir apprehen- 
sions of danger from him, if any such really existed. There 
was really no ground for them, however zealously the attor- 
ney might strive to awaken them. He was engaged in no pro- 
ject inimical to the peace or tranquillity of the country ; as 
they would certainly learn whenever the attorney should be 
ready, which he greatly apprehended would never be. In the 
mean time, although private business urgently demanded his 
presence elsewhere, he felt compelled to give the attorney one 
more opportunity of proving his charge, and would patiently 
await another attack." 

Henry Clay appeared as Burr's counsel, having first received 
from him- the most solemn assurance that he entertained " no 
design to intermeddle with or disturb the tranquillity of the 
United States, nor its territories, nor any part of them. Ht 
had neither issued, nor signed, nor promised a commission tc 
any person for any purpose. He did not own a single musket, 
nor bayonet, nor any single article of military stores, nor did 
any other person for him, by his authority or knowledge. His 
views had been explained to several distinguished members of 
the Administration, were well understood and approved by the 
Government. They were such as every man of honor, and 
every good citizen must approve." 

[The same and even stronger assurances were given to Gov- 
ernor Harrison under date of Nov. 27th. General Jackson, 
alarmed at the attitude of affairs, had to be appeased, and 
Burr also reassured him in the most unequivocal manner.] 

It is not strange that, after such avowals, the people should 
deem the adventurer a persecuted man. Daviess, for a few 
weeks, carried upon his shoulders a load of obloquy and defa- 
mation which no other man in the West could sustain. He 
was a Federalist — one of that class then special objects of 
* democratic' dislike ; and now, that he was persecuting the man 
regarded by the masses as one of the chief founders of the 
democratic party, the District Attorney could hope for nothing 
less lenient than a coat of tar and feathers. But, what man in 
Kentucky dared to lay violent hands on Jo Daviess ! 

4-gain a postponement of the hearing, to Dec. 2d. Floyd 
37 



296 CONSPIEACY OF BURR. 

still being absent. When this latter day came Floyd was 
present, but John Adair (General Adair, one of Burr's confi- 
dants) was absent, and Daviess was forced to ask for a further 
postponement — the Grand Jury to remain impanneled. This 
Clay resisted. Collins, in his "History of Kentucky" says: 
" Burr, upon the present occasion, remained silent, and entire- 
ly unmoved by anything that occurred. A most animated and 
impassioned debate sprung up, intermingled with sharp and 
flashing personalities, between Clay and Daviess. Never did 
two more illustrious orators encounter each other in debate. 
The enormous mass which crowded to suffocation the floor, the 
galleries, the windows, the platform of the judge, remained 
still and breathless for hours, while these renowned and im- 
mortal champions, stimulated by mutual rivalry, and each 
glowing in the ardent conviction of right, encountered each 
other in splendid intellectual combat. Clay had the sympa- 
thies of the audience on his side, and was the leader of the 
popular party in Kentucky. Daviess was a Federalist, and 
was regarded as persecuting an innocent and unfortunate man 
from motives of political hate. ' But he was buoyed up by the 
full conviction of Burr's guilt, and the delusion of the people 
on the subject; and the very infatuation which he beheld 
around him, and the smiling serenity of the traitor who sat 
before him, stirred his gi'eat spirit to 'one of his most brilliant 
efforts. All,, however, was in vain. Judge Innis refused to 
retain the grand jury, unless some business was brought before 
them ; and Daviess, in order to gain time, sent up to them an 
indictment against John Adair, which was pronounced by the 
jury 'not a true bill.' The hour being late, Daviess then 
moved for an attachment to compel the presence of Adair, 
which was resisted by Burr's counsel, and refused by the court, 
on the ground that Adair was not in contempt till the day 
had expired. On the motion of Daviess, the court then ad- 
journed to the following day." 

On the following day Daviess demanded permission to at- 
tend the grand jury in their room for the purpose of examin- 
ing witnesses — a claim resisted by Clay as unprecedented, and 
denied by Judge Innis. The grand jury retired, examined 



burr's release. 297 

sucli witnesses as were sent up to them, and, on the 5th of 
December, returned " not a true bill." This return was ac- 
companied by a written declaration signed by every juryman " 
in which, in view of all the evidence placed before them, they 
exonerated Burr from any design inimical to the peace or well 
being of the country. 

This acquittal was received with extraordinary demonstra- 
tions of satisfaction. Collins says : " The acquittal of Burr 
was celebrated at Frankfort by a brilliant ball, numerously at- 
tended ; which was followed by another ball given in honor of 
the baffled attorney, by those friends who believed the charge 
to be just, and that truth, for the time, had been baffled by 
boldness, eloquence and delusion. At one of these parties the 
editor of the Western World^ who had boldly sounded the 
alarm, was violently attacked, with a view of driving him from 
the ball-room, and was rescued with difficulty." 

Thus freed from legal restraint, the adventurer hastened to 
perfect his arrangements for a descent of the river. He pro- 
ceeded, in company with General Adair, to Nashville, where 
he became the recipient of new honors. The section of the 
expedition to move from Nashville down the Cumberland he 
was to lead in person. At the mouth of the Cumberland he 
would be joined by Blennerhessett's, Floyd's and Tyler's sec- 
tions, when the whole would proceed on the Southern voyage. 
This was the plan. 

But, delays had wrought the evils apprehended, Jefferson's 
messenger reached Marietta about Nov. 15th, and, by prac- 
tising a little art, soon learned from the enthusiastic Blenner- 
hassett enough to make action necessary. He proceeded 
qiiickly to Chillicothe, the State capital, where the Legislature 
was in session. An act was passed, without delay, empower- 
ing the Governor to call out the militia, to seize the boats 
building on the Muskingum, and to take all necessary steps to 
break up the expedition. The boats accordingly were seized 
early in December. The President's proclamation soon fol- 
lowed, to add zest to the pursuit of the now outlawed cru- 
saders. A section of the expedition, fitting out at Beaver, 
Pennsylvania, hastened its departure. Four boats, under com- 



98 CONSPIRACY OF BURR. 

mand of Colonel Tyler, reached Blennerhassett's island Dec. 
lOth. Finding that, not only were his own boats seized, but 
that the militia were to move down to seize those of Colonel 
Tyler, Blennerhassett hastily embarked, on the night of Dec. 
13th, in Tyler's batteaux, with such of the men as chose to 
adhere to the enterprise. On the 14th a posse of militia with 
three justices of the peace visited the island, only to find there 
a company of gay young fellows just arrived from New York 
city. These, the justices " tried," but soon released from want 
of any evidence of their participation in Burr's enterprise. Mrs. 
Blennerhassett, with her children, having failed to obtain fi-om 
the Marietta authorities her own specially furnished boat, 
dropped down to the island during the day (14th) and was 
rather roughly treated by the "citizen soldiery," who, having 
access to the wine cellar, soon became uproarous in their con- 
duct. The New Yorkers offering the still resolute woman 
passage in their boat, she accepted the substitute for her own 
barge of state and fled down stream to join her husband. That 
beautiful house was quickly reduced to a ruin. Its grounds, 
its costly furniture, its expensive works of art — all were a 
wreck, ere a week had passed. 

Hastening from Chillicothe, Graham, the Government's agent, 
proceeded to Frankfort, Kentucky, to find the Legislature in 
session and a state of high excitement prevailing. Jo Daviess 
had succeeded in obtaining a committee of investigation upon 
charges of corruption and Spanish pensions preferred against 
Sebastian, Judge Innis, George Nicholas, [the same who as- 
sumed the paternity of Jefl'erson's resolutions of '98] then de- 
ceased, and others. The disclosures which followed were 
startling enough ; yet, strange as it may appear, the greatest 
sinner of all the "pensioners," General Wilkinson, escaped 
exposure. Graham arrived at the moment of these disclosures, 
and readily succeeded in securing the passage of an order for 
the arrest of all inculpated in Burr's enterprise. A few seiz- 
ures only were made. Such a marvellous change had a few 
days made that, out of the great multitudes of those who had 
applauded and sustained the ex- Vice President, not a beggarly 



FLOATING DOWN THE MISSISSIPPI. 299 

dozen could be found who did not now denounce him ! Jo 
Daviess' hour of triumph indeed had come. 

Burr, at Nashville, heard of Graham's mission, and precipi- 
tately fled, with but two boats, down the Cumberiand, on the 
night preceding the arrival of orders for his arrest. General 
Adair at the same time started overiand to New Orieans. 
Eeaching (Dec. 24th) the mouth of the Cumberiand, the fugi- 
tive found Blennerhasset, Floyd and Tyler already there, await- 
ing his coming. Some delay was made in that then wild 
and distant spot, awaiting the arrival of other boats which it 
was supposed would escape from Cincinnati and other points. 
But, the zeal of Burr's late friend, United States Senator Smith, 
and the activity of the Ohio and Kentucky authorities, pre- 
vented the embarkation of recruits. No reenforcements, there- 
fore, were forthcoming. Burr did not despair. He at once 
commenced an intrigue to secure the garrison of Fort Massac, 
(located on the Ohio, neariy opposite the Cumberiand mouth). 
A sergeant only was obtained under the false plea that he was 
required for a special mission to St. Louis. 

A count of heads showed the " expeditionary force" to con- 
sist of sixty men and ten boats. With this array the monarch 
of undefined realms floated away down stream, on the route to 
New Orleans and— Richmond. Not one of the men knew 
whither they were bound. They were a jolly set, who loved 
nothing so much as whiskey and a fiddle— two commodities 
with which they were well supplied. The silences of the great 
Father of waters were strangely disturbed by the merry-mak- 
ing of that band of brothers. 

■January 3d, 1807, tlie flotilla brought up at the Chicksaw 
Bluffs (Memphis) a military post, having a small garrison. 
Burr sought to enlist the services of its commanding officer 
and neariy succeeded ; but, the officer, after consultation with 
friends, refused his co-operation and Burr proceeded on his 
way without a single recruit from that station. January 10th 
he reached the settlement of Bayou Pierre, thirty miles above 
Natchez, and there from a newspaper first learned, to his great 
amazement and indignation, that Wilkinson had proven false 
and was even then preparing New Orleans to resist the grand 



300 CONSPIRACY OP BURR. 

climax of horrors which his eager fancy had painted as coming 
in the train of Aaron Burr's advent. The country was all 
ablaze with excitement. The Governor of Mississippi already 
had out a proclamation denouncing the expedition and calling 
upon all to assist in its suppression. In the hurried glance 
over that newspaper the Conspirator read his doom : his Mex- 
ican castle was gone and a prison stared him in the face. 

We may now recur to Wilkinson's operations. The two 
messengers dispatched by Burr, after nine weeks' incessant 
traveling, reached the mouth of the Ked river to learn that 
Wilkinson was at Nachitoches. Ogden went on down to New 
Orleans, while Swartwout, with the important letter in cypher, 
pushed on for the United States' camp, arriving there October 
8th. After some little delay the precious package was placed 
by the bearer in Wilkinson's hands. The letter, as interpreted 
by the General-in-chief, and as given in evidence, read : 

" Yours, post-marked 13th of May, is received. I, Aaron Burr, have 
obtained funds, and have actually commenced the enterprise. Detach- 
ments from different points, and under different pretenses, will rendez- 
vous on the Ohio, 1st November — everything internal and external, fa- 
vors views ; protection of England is secured. T is going to Ja- 
maica to arrange with the admiral on that station ; it will meet on the 

Mississippi. , England, , navy of the United States are ready 

to ioin, and final orders are given to my friends and followers : it will 
be a host of choice spirits. Wilkinson shall be second to Burr only, 
Wilkinson shall dictate the rank and jiromotion of his officers. Burr 
will proceed westward, 1st August, never more to return ; with him 
goes his daughter ; the husband will follow in October, with a corps of 
worthies. 

" Send forth an intelligent and confidential friend with whom Burr 
may confer ; he shall return immediately with further interesting de- 
tails ; this is essential to concert and harmony of movement. Send a 
list of all persons known to Wilkmson, west of the mountains, who may 
be useful, with a note delineating their characters. By your messenger 
send me four or five commissions of your officers, which you can bor- 
row under any jiretense you please; they shall be returned faithfully. 
Already are orders to the contractors given to forward six months' pro- 
visions to points Wilkinson may name : this shall not be used until the 
last moment, and then under proper injunctions. The project is brought 
to the point so long desired. Burr guarantees the result with his life 



THE CYPHEE LETTER. 301 

and honor, with the honor and fortunes of hundreds of the bcist blood 
of our country. 

" Burr's phin of operation is, to move down rapidly from the Falls 
on the 15th of September, with the first 500 or 1,000 men in light boats, 
now constrnctiug for that purpose, to be at Natchez between the 5th 
and 15th of December; there to meet Wilkinson ; there to determine 
whether it will be expedient in the first instance to seize on or pasa 
by Baton Rouge. On receipt of this send an answer. Draw on Burr 
for all expenses, etc. The people of the country to which we are 
going, are prepared to receive us. Their agents, now with Burr, say, 
that if we will protect their religion, and will not subject them to a 
foreign power, that in three weeks all will be settled. The gods in- 
vite to glory and fortune ; it remains to be seen whether we deserve 
the boon. The bearer of this goes express to you ; he will hand a for- 
mal letter of introduction to you from Burr. He is a man of inviolable 
honor and perfect discretion; formed to execute rather than to project; 
capable of relating facts with fidelity, and incapable of relating them 
otherwise. He is thoroughly informed of the plans and intentions of 
Burr, and will disclose to you as far as you inquii'e and no further. He 
has imbibed a reverence for your character, and may be embarrassed in 
your presence. Put him at ease, and he will satisfy you." 

Accompanying this was a brief but very significant note 
from ex-Senator Dayton. It ran : 

" Dear Sir : It is now well ascertained that you are to be displaced in 
next session. Jefterson will affect to yield reluctantly to the public sen- 
timent, but yield he will. Prepare yourself, therefore, for it. You know 
the rest. You are not a man to despair, or even despond, esjjecially 
when such prospects offer in another quarter. Are you ready ? Are 
your numerous associates ready ? Wealtli and glory, Louisiana and 
Mexico ! I sliall have time to receive a letter from you before I set out 
for Ohio. Ohio. Address one to me here, and another in Cincinnati. 
Receive and treat my nephew affectionately as you would receive your 
friend Dayton." 

Here, then, were the results of his connection with Burr. 
What should be done ? It was stated on evidence that the 
letter was decyphered during the night, and that, early the 
next morning, the General announced to Colonel Gushing its 
important contents, at the same time declaring his purpose to 
oppose Burr's enterprise with every means in his power. But, 
we can well conceive that the conscience of the man was not 
put to any sudden test, although Burr's rather extraordinarily 
bold programme may have startled the soldier for a moment 



302 CONSPIRACY OF BURR. 

The General doubtless had determined -upon his course 
weeks prior to Swartwout's appearance — had resolved to sup- 
press his own conspiracy and thus obtain the thanks of his 
countrymen ! That was his usual way of advancement. Par- 
ton says : 

'' At the last moment, then, Wilkinson shrank from the work expect- 
ed of him. The probability is strong that he always meant to do so. 
That he was a weak, vain, false, greedy man, is likely enough. That 
carried away by the magic of Burr's resistless prese7^ce, and hojjing 
the scheme would never involve hitn in its folds, he suggested, en- 
couraged and aided it, is very probable. That he had given Burr to 
understand, in some vague way, that he would strike a blow which 
would begin a war, whenever it should be needed, is also probable. 
That he chose the part he did choose from a calculation of advan- 
tages to himself, from motives mean and mercenary, rests upon evi- 
dence that convinces. Nevertheless, the fact remains, that he did not 
" strike the blow;" he did 7wt involve two nations in war; he did not 
shajje his course according to the wishes of Aaron Burr, instead of the 
orders of Thomas Jefferson. If he was a traitor, he was a traitor to his 
confederates, not to his country, his commission, his flag. True, the 
country, particularly the Western States, desired war, and would have 
applauded him for beginning it. But to a soldier, his country sjieaks 
only through the commands of its chief." 

The author might have paused at his words " evidence that 
convinces." We conceive it as admitting of no denial, that 
the General chose his part from motives base enough to relieve 
his memory from the charge of once having acted the patriot's 
part from a patriot's sense of duty. 

In spite, however, of the General's announced purpose, he 
did not act as promptly as his testimony would indicate. He 
kept Swartwout in camp for ten days, when the messenger was 
permitted to go down stream to New Orleans, fully believing 
in the General's good faith to Burr. After Swartwout had 
been gone three days the General resolved to dispatch informa- 
tion to Jefferson. Parton states : 

" The messenger left camp on the 21st of October, and delivered his 
dispatches to the President on the 35th of November. On the 27th, Jef- 
ferson issued his proclamation, and sent it flying through the States, 
paralyzing the enterprise as it flew, and filling the country with con- 
sternation. It is noticeable, that neither in Wilkinson's disj^atches, 
nor in Jefferson's proclamation, was the name of Burr mentioned. 



JACKSON SOUNDS AN ALARM. 803 

Wilkinson, indeed, expressly and falsely wrote that he did not know 
who the prime mover of the conspiracy was. He admitted, after- 
ward, that he wrote a letter to Burr after the receipt of the cypher, 
but, upon reflection, pursued the letter and destroyed it. The Pres- 
ident's proclamation merely announced that unlawful enterprises were 
on foot in the Western States ; warned all persons ' to withdraw 
themselves from the same without delay,' 'as they will answer the 
contrary at their peril, and incur prosecution with all the rigors of the 
law ;' and commanded all officers, civil and military, to use their im- 
mediate and utmost exertions to bring the offending persons to condign 
punishment." 

The duplicity of the man stands forth here as in almost 
every decisive act of his life : he wrote to Burr after he had 
resolved upon his arrest, but recalled the messenger, and there- 
upon debated several precious days further, took counsel of his 
wits and of Swartwout, then dismissed the bearer of the cypher, 
and, after three days' further reasoning with himself, dispatch- 
ed a messenger to the President. But, even then he practiced 
deceit, stating that he did not know who was the prime mover 
of the conspiracy ! He did not know himself 

After the departure of his dispatches to Washington, Wil- 
kinson moved his army from Nachitoches to the Sabine river, 
where the Spaniards still remained in menacing force. He soon 
arranged terms of truce, much to the disgust of his men, who 
were eager to "wipe out" the Dons; and then departed for 
New Orleans, ordering Colonel Gushing to follow with the 
bulk of the army. On the very day that his disjjatclies reach- 
ed the Capital the General-in-Chief dropped into New Orleans, 
to find the city in a state of mysterious excitement. The sturdy 
patriot, Andrew Jackson, had written to Claiborne, Governor 
of " Orleans territory," under date of Nov. 12th, in a manner 
to excite alarm. Jackson said, among other things : 

"Put your town (New Orleans) in a state of defense, organize your 
militia, and defend your city as well against internal enemies as exter- 
nal. My knowledge does not extend so far as to authorise me to go into 
detail, but, I fear you will meet an attack from quarters you do not at 
present expect. Be upon the alert; keep a watchful eye on your Gene- 
ral, and beware of an attack as well from your own country as from 
Spain. I fear there is something rotten in the State of Denmark. * * 
Beware of the month of December. I love my country and Government; 
1 hate the Dons ; I would delight to see Mexico reduced, but I would 

38 



304 CONSPIRACY OF BURR. 

die in the last ditch before I would yield a foot to the Dons, or see the 
Union disunited." 

Claiborne at once sought for explanations of Wilkinson and 
was admitted to the secret. It was resolved to call the citi- 
zens together to make known to them the threatened danger. 
This was done. Wilkinson addressed them, giving information 
of the cypher letter, and filling out the details with alarming 
amplification of impending dangers. The multitude was tho- 
roughly aroused and readily answered the call to arms. Vol- 
unteers enrolled to man the old fortifications and to assist in 
erecting new stockades at various endangered points. A strong 
guard was dispatched to occupy the river banks above the city, 
there to overhaul every craft floating down stream. The Leg- 
islature of Orleans territory was called together in special ses- 
sion to consider a communication from Wilkinson, which con- 
tained a translation of the cypher letter. [It was this commu- 
nication which Burr read at Bayou Pierre — his first intimation 
of Wilkinson's defection.] The fears grew ; Wilkinson was 
in his element — was the leading spirit of the storm. He be- 
came convinced that the civil law was impotent to cope with 
the dangers menacing, and resolved to "take the responsibili- 
ty" of declaring martial law. Swartwout, Ogden, Bollman 
and Adair were forcibly seized, and, in spite of the efforts of 
their still staunch friends, were forced on board a vessel and 
sent to Baltimore — prisoners with not a single proven charge 
against them. Writs of habeas corpus were scorned, and the 
judge who issued them, (Workman,) was placed under arrest 
as a particeps criminis^ sent to the common guard house and 
kept imprisoned until released by the efforts of the U. S. Dis- 
trict Judge. [Swartwout and Bollman were examined, when 
they reached Washington, and were at once released — no evi- 
dence of any kind being given to sustain the arrest] A reign 
of terror prevailed. Citizens were arrested and placed under 
surveillance. Houses were visited, papers overhauled, a pass- 
port system introduced, an embargo laid upon commerce ex- 
cept under special restrictions : every thing was done which 
savored of extreme danger. 

Turning from this scene of excitement to Burr's little en* 



WILKINSON S PREDICAMENT. 805 

campment on the east side of the Mississippi just above Bayou 
Pierre, and beholding there less than one hundred men, a 
rollicing, half armed, uninformed crew, it is difficult to sup- 
press a laugh at the discrepancy between the imaginary and the 
real danger. 

Week after week passed at New Orleans, and yet no signs 
of the " invaders" — no appearance of an English fleet in the 
offing — no uprising of the people in favor of the Mexican 
scheme ! The General began to grow visibly uneasy at the 
absence of an enemy. He began to fear for his reputation as 
a courageous and discreet officer. It was growing ridiculously 
awkward — that standing challenge for a combat which none 
would accept. So the Orleans papers thought, and, ere long, 
so they dared to speak. The grand jury presented his meas- 
ures as illegal and unconstitutional ; the press arraigned him 
as an incompetent officer and a dangerous man ; the people 
denounced his as a second edition of Falstaff — whom he, indeed, 
represented in so many of his mental and physical characteris- 
tics as to excite a regret that the General had not chosen the 
dramatic boards for his ' field of operations.' 

But, the General was not without his grain of comfort. The 
issue^by Jefferson of the proclamation of Nov. 27th ; his emis- 
sion of orders of warning and of arrest to the Governors ; his 
message of Dec. 2d, to be followed by the special message of 
Jan. 22d [see Appendix for message in full] ; his several ap- 
probatory letters to his friend, all served to console the agent 
by proving that the Administration was equally excited with 
himself Then the deposition of Eaton was given publicity, 
to add immensely to the public excitement, and Burr became, 
for the moment, a monster of huge proportions ; his past his- 
tory was revived and painted in colors dismal enough for a 
Mohammedan ; his victims in the social circle were counted 
by the dozen and his natural children by the scores ; his du- 
plicity, subtelty, power of persuasion were freely canvassed 
even by his old political coadj utors : he became, for the day, 
the sum of all villainies. Such was the change which accom- 
panied the man's fortunes. In July he was His Excellency, 
the ex- Vice President ; in January he was Satan, 



306 CONSPIRACY OF BURR. 

Burr, after reading in the New Orleans journal, Wilkinson's 
communication to the called session of the Legislature, and 
also the proclamations for his arrest, expressed no perturbation, 
although his surprise must have been complete. He conversed 
freely with the planter, at whose residence he obtained the 
news, affirming his innocence of designs against the Union, and 
so far won upon the planter's confidence as to secure a warm 
friend. After a brief conference it was decided to move the 
boats and men over the river, thus to place them and himself 
beyond the jurisdiction of the Mississippi Executive. This was 
done, and a little encampment made at a point about thirty 
miles above Natchez. From thence he addressed a letter to 
the public expressive of surprise at the excitement prevailing, 
denying that his expedition had any other than a legitimate 
object, and requesting that his " fellow citizens should visit his 
camp and boats, and by observation learn the folly of their ap- 
prehensions" ; but, the Governor answered the invitation by 
calling out the militia of Natchez and vicinity to arrest the 
fugitives under the authority of the President's proclamation 
and special instructions. These troops gathered without delay 
at Cole's creek, a few miles below Bayou Pierre, opposite to 
which was Burr's camp. Prior to any action, however, an ar- 
rangement was made with Poindexter, Attorney-General of 
Mississippi Territory, for Burr to meet Governor Mead at 
Cole's creek. This audience took place Jan. 16th, when Burr 
was informed that, in spite of his location on the Louisiana 
side, the militia would move upon his camp at once. He there- 
fore surrendered himself a prisoner, and was conducted for a 
hearing to the town of Washington, the seat of territorial gov- 
ernment, ten miles east of Natchez. Poindexter was of opinion 
that the prisoner, having committed no offense in Mississippi 
Territory, could not be indicted ; he also held " that the Su- 
preme Territorial Court, being a court of appeals only, could 
not entertain original jurisdiction of the matter, and that it 
would be best to send Burr to the seat of the National Gov- 
ernment, where the Supreme Court of the United States was 
in session, by which the proper locality for the trial of Burr 
might be determined. But Kodney, the judge before whom 



EXTRAOKDINAR Y VERDICT. 307 

Burr was brought, thinking differently, directed a grand jury 
to be summoned to attend the approaching term of the Supreme 
Territorial Court, and Burr to give recognizances to appear 
from day to day. He was not without sympathizers among 
the neighboring planters, and found no difficulty in obtaining 
sureties. When the court met, Feb. 5th, Poindexter took the 
same ground he did before; but, as the two judges were di- 
vided in opinion, his motion was overruled." The grand jury 
therefore took the case into consideration, and, after a compa- 
ritively brief sitting, returned the following extraordinary ver- 
dict : 

" The grand jury of the Mississippi Territory, on a due investigation 
of the evidence brought before them, are of opinion that Aaron Burr has 
not been guilty of any crime or misdemeanor against the laws of the 
United States, or of this Territory ; or given any just cause of alarm or 
inquietude to the good people of the same. 

" The grand jurors present, as a grievance, the late military expedi- 
tion, unnecessarily, as they conceive, fitted out against the j)erson and 
property of the said Aaron Burr, when no resistance has been made 
to the civil authorities, 

"The grand jurors also present, as a grievance, destructive of person- 
al liberty, the late military arrests, made without warrant, and, as they 
conceive, without other lawful authority; and they do sincerely regret 
that so much cause has been given to the enemies of our glorious Con- 
stitution, to rejoice at such measures being adopted, in a neighboring 
Territory, as, if sanctioned by the Executive of our country, must sap 
the vitals of our political existence, and crumble this glorious fabric in 
the dust." 

This was indeed a "turning] of the tables." Instead of in- 
dicting the prisoner his prosecutors were arraigned ! Poindex- 
ter declared the return both a disgrace and an outrage ; the 
Judge pronounced it impertinent and useless ; but their indig- 
nation did not drive the grand jury into any change of senti- 
ment. Burr demanded his legal release, that his recognizance 
might be no longer binding ; but, it was resolved to hold him 
for further proceedings, or, as Burr feared, to hand him over 
to Wilkinson. His release was refused by the bench and 
attorney. He determined to fly : fall into Wilkinson's hands 
he would not. Visiting his camp he informed the men of his 
danger, advising them to sell the boats, provisions, &c., and to 



808 CONSFIRACY OF BURR. 

go their own way — offering all wlio chose to go grants of soil 
on the Wachita purchase. He then recrossed the river ; was 
carefully equipped by his friends (he found plenty of them 
among the planters), and, provided with a good guide, struck 
off across the wilderness for the weary journey to the Atlantic 
3oast, or to Pensacola, as circumstances should determine. 
The Court on assembling next morning called the prisoner, 
and, upon his non-appearance, declared his recognizance for- 
feited. A reward of two thousand dollars was offered for his 
arrest. Numbers of vagabonds were soon roaming the coun- 
try in the search, though none secured the coveted prize. A 
negro boy who had been known to act as Burr's servant ap- 
peared on the shore opposite the flotilla, wearing his master's 
overcoat. He was seized, when, upon search, a note was dis- 
covered stitched to the lining of the cape addressed to " C. T." 
and"D. F." It read: 

" If you are yet together, keep so, and I will join you to-morrow night. 
In the mean while, put all your arms in perfect order. Ask no ques- 
tions of the bearer, but tell him all you may think I wish to know. He 
does not know that this is from me, nor where I am." 

This doubtless was designed by Burr as a blind. Colonel 
Comfort Tyler, and Davis Floyd, ex-member of the Indiana 
Legislature, still were in camp, in charge of their respective 
gections. Guards were set at once by the Governor to watch 
for the re-appearance of the chief, but he was even then well 
on his way to the East, accompanied by a trusty guide. C. F. 
and D. T. and Blennerhassett were placed under arrest ; but, 
nothing transpiring, they soon were released. The expedition 
at once dissolved. The Irishman, accompanied by his now 
thoroughly disheartened if not disgusted wife, retained enough 
means to make his way back to the island. He started for 
the North only to be arrested in Kentucky, by orders from 
Washington, and was borne to Eichmond to be tried for trea- 
son. Most of the adventurers found their way back, unmo- 
lested, to their homes, though a few tarried to supply that be- 
nighted region with school and music masters. 

The story of Burr's arrest in the backwoods of Alabama 
forms, in his biographer's (Parton) version, a very romantic 



BURR S ARREST IN ALABAMA. 809 

episode. Stripping it of embellislimeiit it may be told as fol- 
lows : One cold 'evening in February (the 18th) two young 
lawyers were playing at backgammon in a cabin, in Wakefield, 
the county seat of Washington county, Alabama. Their game 
was disturbed by the arrival, before the door, of two travellers, 
one of whom made inquiry for the residence of Colonel Hinson, 
a leading man of that vicinity. One of the lawyers. Colonel 
Nicholas Perkins, passed out to direct the strangers, and ob- 
served by the glare of the bright fire that the inquirer, though 
outwardly dressed in the rough garb of a common planter, was 
a person of mark. His dazzling eye, the silvery ring of his 
voice and correct pronunciation of his words, the delicately 
booted foot projecting from the homespun pantaloons, the air 
of superiority — all indicated the owner to be no common man. 
Perkins gave the required information and entered the cabin 
again to pronounce the words " Aaron Burr ! " to his incredu- 
lous companion. A description of the man, appended to the 
proclamation and reward for his arrest, left no doubt of his 
identity. Perkins proceeded to arouse the Sheriff. These two 
then made their way to the house of Colonel Hinson, in pur- 
suit of Burr and his guide. Once there Perkins was left in 
the woods while the Sheriff entered the house. The two tra- 
vellers were warming in the kitchen by a bright fire. While 
Mrs. Hinson proceeded to get supper, the Sheriff entered into 
conversation with the suspected stranger. The officer was 
" fascinated," like all others who came in contact with the man ; 
he did not return, as promised, to Perkins. Not to be thwart- 
ed, however, the young lawyer started for Fort Stoddart, on 
the Tombigbee, twelve miles below, where he arrived at day- 
break. Lieutenant Gaines (afterward Major-General Edmund 
P. Gaines) then in command, with a file of dragoons, and ac- 
companied by Perkins, started in pursuit, directing their course 
to the Pensacola road. Turning up this road toward Wake- 
field they met Burr and his companion, only two miles from 
Hinson's house — the Sheriff having but just left the travellers, 
after directing them on their way. Gaines rode forward and 
accosted the stranger : " I presume I have the honor of address- 
ing Colonel Aaron Burr." " I am a traveller, sir ; and do not 



310 CONSPIRACY OF BURR. 

recognise your right to question me," was the reply, as the 
horseman moved on. Gaines pulled from his breast pocket 
the proclamation, and thrusting it before the fugitive's face ex- 
claimed : " I arrest you by authority of this proclamation, as 
a prisoner to the Federal Government ! " Burr attempted to 
intimidate his captor ; but the young officer was resolute, and 
firmly bade Burr accompany him to his quarters, where he 
would be treated with all the respect due the ex-Yice President 
of the United States. Seeing that resistance was useless the 
dethroned chief submitted with a good grace, and was escorted 
to the Fort (Feb. 19th). There he remained until March 5th, 
making complete captive of all, both male and female, in and 
around the Fort. Leading citizens visited him freely, and the 
ladies, generally, showered all manner of attentions upon him. 
His departure from the Fort, for the trip through the wilder- 
ness to the North, we are told, was a scene of affecting adieux. 
"The tears," says Parton, "of the ladies residing at the fort 
fell fast as Colonel Burr, escorted by a file of soldiers, went 
down to the shore and embarked on board the boat provided 
for the ascent of the Alabama. He had no enemies there. The 
men could have no ill-will to one whose offense had been a 
desire to terminate the hateful rule of the Spaniards ; and wo- 
men were always and everywhere his friends. As the boat, 
with its crew of soldiers, glided past the few houses on the 
river's bank, all the ladies, it is said, waved their handkerchiefs, 
except those who were obliged to put those weapons to a ten- 
derer use. One of the ladies of the Alabama named her infant 
Aaron Burr ; and he was not the only young gentleman in the 
South-west who bore through life a similar record of the events 
amid which he was born." 

Of that novel journey through the imsettled wilds a pleasing 
chapter might be written. The guard of nine trusty men was 
officered by Colonel Perkins, in person, who would not admit 
any man less resolute than himself to the important mission of 
delivering Burr safely to the authorities at Washington. Ex- 
treme caution was used to guard against any influence over 
the men, as well as to avoid all settlements where a rescue 
might be attempted. Only one effort was made bj Burr to 



BURR COMMITTED FOR TRIAL. 813 

secure his liberty, but it failed througb Perkins' resolute and 
rapid action. After Various adventures the party safely reach- 
ed Fredericksburg, in Virginia. An express from Washing- 
ton directed the prisoner to be taken to Eichmond, where he 
arrived March 26th, 1807. 

On Monday, March 30th, the preliminary examination took 
place, before Chief-Justice John Marshall, assisted by Judge 
Griffin, of the District Court. Burr made his own defense — at 
once ingenious and, apparently, ingenuous. A three days' hear- 
ing followed. Burr called to his aid Edmund Eandolph, al- 
ready referred to in these pages in connection with Genet's 
Conspiracy. The celebrated Luther Martin, of Maryland, was 
afterwards added to his splendid staff of counsel. The prose- 
cution though ordered by the U. S. Attorney General, Eodney, 
wab conducted by the District Attorney, George Hay, assisted 
by that man of many brilliant qualities, William Wirt, of Eich- 
mond. Lieutenant-Governor McEae afterwards was added to 
the prosecutor's staff. The preliminaries resulted in a de- 
cision to commit Burr for a misdemeanor, leaving to the grand 
jury the investigation of the charge of treason. Two leading 
citizens of Eichmond became his bondsmen in the sum of ten 
thousand dollars for his appearance at the ensuing session of 
the U. S. Circuit Court, to sit in Eichmond May 22d, 1807. 

But a few days after this examination we find Jefferson ad- 
ding to his singular record of mingled frenzy and folly by 
writing a letter to U. S. Senator Giles, of Virginia. He refer- 
red with much bitterness to the trickery shown by the Judges, 
in hastening the trial so as to clear Burr ; he railed at the Fed- 
eralists as a disappointed set who regretted Burr's failure to 
sever the Union, assuming, with a partisan antipathy which 
should shame a President, that, had Burr succeeded, even par- 
tially, the Federalists were prepared to join the Conspirator 
for the overthrow of a Eepublic which they hated and to instal 
" their favorite monarchy" ! And much more to the same ef- 
fect ; showing himself, to a later generation, as to have been 
a very implacable man. He sunk the dignity of the Pre- 
sident in the irritability of the politician. Throughout the en- 
tire trial his conduct was directed by the idea that the Federal- 
39 



314 CONSPIRACY OF BURR. 

ists were leagued to secure Burr's acquittal — that the Chief 
Justice and the associate Circuit Judge were political partisans 
instead of grave and austere dispensers of law. The record is 
one which even Mr. Eandall finds it dif&cult to reconcile with 
fairness and wisdom. A more impartial and upright judge 
than John Marshall never graced a bench ; among Chief Jus- 
tices he stands a Washington of legal wisdom, prudence and 
truth ; and the writer who attempts to defend Mr. Jefferson for 
his aspersions of the Judge in the conduct of the Burr trial 
has an unenviable task before him. Burr, adverting to the 
animus of the prosecution as betrayed in the earliest stages of 
the trial, said : 

" The most indefatigable industry is used by the agents of govern- 
ment, and they have money at command without stint. If I were pos- 
sessed of the same means, I could not only foil the prosecutors, but ren- 
der them ridiculous and infamous. The democratic papers teem with 
abuse against me and my counsel, and even against the Chief Justice. 
Nothing is left undone or unsaid which can tend to prejudice the jiublic 
mind, and produce a conviction without evidence. The machinations 
of this description which were used against Moreau in France were 
treated in this country with indignation. They are practiced against 
me in a still more impudent degree, not only with im.punity, but with, 
applause ; and the authors and abettors suppose, with reason, that they 
are acquiring favor with the Administration." 

The trial came on as set. May 22d, Judges Marshall and 
Grif&n on the Bench. A grand jury was impanneled after 
much trouble, almost all men regarding as true the declaration 
made by Jefferson in his Message of Jan. 22d, that Burr's 
" guilt is placed beyond a question." The culprit of State as- 
sumed the conduct of his own case to find use for all of his 
astonishing resources. He was equal to the situation : his sa- 
gacity, accumen, tenacity of memory, power of combination 
and command of the technicalities of law excited the astonish- 
ment even of those who knew him best ; while to Jefferson 
(who may be called the real prosecutor) and the Attorney 
General's assistants, the prisoner was a very Phoenix. On the 
jury was placed, among others. Senator Giles. Him Burr 
challenged, as well as two or three equally oifensive as preju- 
judiced censors. It was finally impanneled, and John Ean- 



SUBPCENA DUCES TECUM. 315 

dolpli, of Eoanoke was made foreman in spite of his declara- 
tion of a belief in Burr's guilt. This consumed the first day. 
The second day was taken up with minor matters : nothing 
of importance could be done until the arrival of "Wilkinson, 
who was looked for hourly. On the third day the prosecution 
made a motion to commit Burr for high treason instead of 
"misdemeanor." This elicited all the energies of the defense, 
and there followed three days of a memorable rhetorical war, 
in which the several combatants displayed their noblest abili- 
ties. The object, as stated, was to commit Burr to prison. 
Wirt assumed that, in view of Wilkinson's coming, the prose- 
cution had no faith in Burr's intention to confront his accuser 
— they feared that he would forfeit his bail and escape. To 
this Eandolph replied with much severity. He said : 

'' Of James Wilkinson we are not afraid, in whatever shape he may 
be produced, in whatever form he may appear in this court. We are 
only afraid of those effects which desperation may produce in his mind. 
Desperation is a word of great fitness in his case. General Wilkinson 
we behold first acting as a conspirator to ensnare others, afterwards as 
a patriot to betray them from motives of patriotism. What must be 
the embarrassment of this man when the awful catastrophe arrives, that 
he must either substantiate his own innocence by the conviction of 
another, or be himself regarded as a traitor and conspirator in the event 
of the acquittal of the accused." 

Mr. Eandolph evidently did not know the General : he never 
was " embarrassed" at anything, let his failure be ever so glar- 
ing. The motion was finally disposed of by doubling the bail 
bond. 

Still, Wilkinson did not arrive. The counsel employed 
their time in plot and counterplot for the advantage of posi- 
tion. Burr in person had visited Washington to obtain the 
first dispatch of Wilkinson to the President, in which the 
General stated that he did not know who was the prime mover 
of the conspiracy ; but had failed to secure a copy of the docu- 
ment. It was moved by his counsel that the Court should is- 
sue a subpoena duces tecum to the President of the United States 
requiring him to furnish the said dispatch, and also copies of 
the orders issued to the army and navy during the late excite- 
ment. This compulsory mandate started many new and novel 



816 CONSPIRACY OF BURR. 

poitits of law, for wliicli but few precedents existed, and U) 
govern which no rule prevailed. These points were argued 
both with bitterness and ability. The result was a decision 
that the subpoena might issue. Thereat the President became 
exceedingly excited, and not without some reason, considering 
the language used by Luther Martin, which was violent and 
indecorous. The President conceived the idea that Martin 
himself must be guilty of participation in the Conspirator's 
schemes, hence his zeal in Burr's behalf Indeed, Mr. Jeffer 
son was in possession of ^a letter from one Graybell, a citizen 
of Baltimore, who testified to Martin's complicity. The Prose- 
cuting Attorney therefore was written to (June 19th) : " Shall 
we move to commit Luther Martin as particeps criminis with 
Burr? Graybell will fix upon him misprison of treason at least. 
At any rate his evidence will put down this impudent and un- 
principled Federal bull dog, and add another proof that the 
most clamorous defenders of Burr are all his accomplices." 
Notwithstanding this invitation of the Executive to trap the 
"bull dog," Mr. Hay did not adjudge the attempt prudent. 
The President was getting repaid for stating, in his " Notes on 
Virginia," that Martin was son-in-law to Michael Cresap, the 
murderer of Logan's family — a statement which Martin never 
forgave. 

The quotation above given is interesting as indicating the 
extremely excited state of the President's mind. After receiv- 
ing Judge Marshall's decision he wrote (June 30th) to Mr. Hay, 
forcibly deprecating that invasion of the Executive's dignity 
and rights, and threatened to use force, if necessary, to protect, 
as Mr. Randall terms it, " the constitutional inviolability of his 
office." Jefferson persisted in treating the decision as a design- 
ed personal indignity, particularly in view of his precedent in 
a somewhat parallel case. In the prosecutions growing out of 
the Miranda expedition he had authorised his Secretaries of 
Departments not to obey any summons of a court to be present 
and to testify on behalf of the defense. Here the case was 
aggravated by the invasion of the Executive's sanctity, making 
him amenable to a subpoena. But, the President forced the 
construction of the decisioa The Judge, in granting the mo- 



QUARTERS IN THE PENITENTIARY. 817 

tion, expressly stated that tlie summons must not be used as a 
means of personal annoyance ; nor did he allude to any pro- 
cess to comjjel the President to supply the papers : all was left 
to his own sense of duty and dignity. The matter was, how- 
ever, virtually ended before the President's indignant pro- 
test of the 20th, for he had, prior to receiving the Judge's de- 
cision, ordered all the papers demanded to be given in. Why, 
then, his threat to use force in event of an invasion of hijs pre- 
rogatives ? 

Wilkinson, having arrived June 15th, appeared in court 
June 17th, after which the witnesses were sent up to the. grand 
jury in great numbers. The defense at once turned their 
whole strategy on an effort to vitiate Wilkinson's testimony, 
but the grand jury anticipated the attempted impeachment by 
returning, on the 24th, separate indictments against Aaron Burr 
and Herman Blennerhassett for " treason" and for " misde- 
meanors." This consigned the accused to prison. On the af- 
ternoon of that day Burr was given over to the city jailor for 
custody. Two days after, three of the prisoner's counsel made 
affidavit concerning the unhealthy and unfit state of his quar- 
ters, when the Court ordered a front room of the house occu- 
pied by Martin to be prepared for his safe-keeping. Before 
this change was effected Mr. Hay presented a resolution pass- 
ed by the Virginia Council of State tendering " apartments" in 
the third story of the Penitentiary, and he moved Burr's com- 
mitment there. To this the prisoners counsel strenuously ob- 
jected — the quarters proposed by the Court being more conve- 
nient. The Governor, Cabell, then wrote to offer Burr a choice 
of the rooms in the Penitentiary, with a stipulation that he 
should be permitted to see only those persons whom he chose 
to admit. A fine suite of three rooms were fitted up on the 
third floor of the building, where " the confined" lived in state 
until Aug. 2d, when he was returned to Martin's house. This 
assignment to Burr of respectable quarters called forth from 
Jefferson an indignant and unseemly protest He conceived 
that, thereafter, any prisoner would have a right to demand 
comfortable apartments. He viewed Burr as a malefactor and 
desired him to be treated as such. 



S18 CONSPIRACY OF BURR. 

After Burr's indictment true bills were found against Colonel 
Comfort Tyler, Jonathan Dayton, John Smith, (U. S. Senator,) 
Davis Floyd and Israel Smith. After which the Court ad- 
journed (June 27th) to Aug. 8d. The interregnum was re- 
quired by both parties to make up their cases and to prepare 
for the important crisis, which was not only to determine the 
fate of Burr and his accomplices but was to fix precedents and 
supply legal construction of the law of treason. During the 
interval "the confined" remained in his apartment, but was 
more like a convalescing prince than a prisoner. His rooms 
were frequented by eminent persons of both sexes — many of 
whom came long distances to be present at the trial. The la- 
dies of Eichmond showered luxuries upon his table. He wrote 
gay letters, received visitors, chatted with cheerfulness and held 
conference with his counsel, thus filling up every moment of 
the entire day. From this pleasant Penitentiary he was trans 
ferred, Aug. 2d, to quarters prepared in Martin's lodgings near 
the Court House. On the day of trial he entered the room 
accompanied by his son-in-law, Grov^rnor Alston, of South 
Carolina. His serenity was complete and his energies all alive 
to the general conduct of his own case. 

To impanel a jury Was a tedious process — almost every per- 
son summoned having formed an opinion. It was not until 
the 17th that a panel was secured and sworn in. Even then 
it was accepted only as the most unprejudiced that could be 
had ! The introduction of testimony followed. Eaton, Com- 
modore Truxton, the Morgans,Blennerhassett's gardener, groom, 
and Woodbridge, his chief agent, were examined — the efibrt 
being to prove the overt act. Not a shadow of proof was ad- 
duced which could secure that starting point. When the pro- 
secution endeavored to introduce collateral and indirect evi- 
dence to sustain their case, it was resisted by the defense. A 
nine days' struggle followed over the right to put in secondary 
and inferential testimony after the primary and direct testimo- 
ny had failed. The splendid debate elicited all the legal talent 
engaged. During the wordy contest William Wirt pronounc- 
ed that speech upon the characters of Aaron Burr and Bleu- 
nerhassett which has rendered his name famous in school-books, 



i 



VEEDICT OF THE JURY. 319 

and fliis victim infamous. The Virginian's orat«,)rical eifort 
long must remain, both as a fine specimen of rhetorical beauty 
and as a ridiculous sacrifice of fact to fancy. Parton very cor- 
rectly characterises the speech as a "brilliant fiction." The 
contest over the point raised was not ended until Aug. 29th. 
Judge Marshall's decision was rendered on the 31st. His re- 
view of the case as presented was very clear, able and impar- • 
tial. He sustained the motion to exclude testimony indirect 
or merely corroborative, because, being incompetent to prove 
the overt act itself, it was irrelevant. 

This, of course, closed the case as to the prosecution for 
treason, unless the prosecutors should take exception to the 
ruling of the Court, or should spring some other and new issue. 
Mr. Hay asked time for himself and associates to consider the 
matter, and the Court adjourned to the day following, when 
the Prosecuting Attorney expressed his willingness to submit 
the case without further contest. The j ury retired and very 
soon returned with their verdict recorded as follows: 

" We, of the jury, say that Aaron Burr is not proved to be guilty un- 
der the indictment by any evidence submitted to us. We, therefore, 
find him not guilty." 

This singular finding for the moment excited Burr. He 
protested against its form and demanded that it should be ren- 
dered in the usual words, "guilty" or "not guilty." The jury 
positively refusing to qualify their verdict, the matter was 
compromised by an order of the Court to enter on the journal 
"not guilty." 

The result, though it seemingly took none by surprise, great- 
ly exasperated those who, like Mr. Jefferson, had resolved that 
he "was guilty without a shadow of doubt." * The President 
wrote to Mr. Hay, (Sept. 4th,) bidding him to pay no witness, 
nor to let him depart without taking a copy of his evidence,* 

* Writing to Mr. Hay, Aug. 20th, the President said : " Before an impartial jury 
Burr's conduct would convict himself were not one word of testimony to be offered 
against him. But, to what a state will our law be reduced by party feelings iu 
those who administer it." Considering that that jury was composed of men al- 
most every one of whom had formed an opinion prejudicial to the prisoner, the 
President's advance implication of mal-administration was highly censurable, 
to say the least. 

• The President's acknowledged motive for this eecond examinatioii of witnesse* 



320 CONSPIKACY OF BURR. 

assuming that it was " now more- important than ever" — an ex- 
pression, Parton observes, betraying that " the real object of 
the prosecution was not so much to convict Aaron Burr of 
treason as to acquit Thomas Jefferson of precipitate and ridi- 
culous credulity." The President added: 

" The criminal is preserved to become the rally in g-point of all the 
disaffected and worthless of the United States, and to be the pivot on 
which all the intrigues and conspiracies which foreign governments may 
wish to disturb us with, are to turn. If he is convicted of the misde- 
meanor, the judge must in decency give us respite by some short con- 
finement of him ; but we must expect it to be very short. Be assured 
yourself, and communicate the same assurance to your colleagues, that 
your and their zeal and abilities have been displayed in this affair to my 
satisfaction and your own honor." 

The trial on the second indictment, for "misdemeanor," fol- 
lowed. Burr's counsel sought to prevent the arraignment on 
the plea that a person could not be twice tried for the same 
offense — that the verdict entered on the journal of " not guilty" 
covered the entire case. Judge Marshall, after a patient hear- 
ing of the points raised, decided for the second trial, and it 
proceeded. The subpoena duces tecum issued. Wilkinson came 
forward as the main witness, producing the cypher letter, and 
divulging all that he knew of Burr and his scheme. It will 
not surprise our readers to be told that the Conspirator con- 
fessed to the Court, under Burr's searching examination, to 
many things incompatible with his own position, and irrecon- 
cileable with an honest intent. Among other matters it was 
found that he had altered the cypher letter. He had previous- 
ly sworn that his version was a true translation of the original. 
It is doubtless true that the detected alterations were of a mi- 
nor nature ; but, that he dared at all to tamper with and to 

was : " These wliole proceedings will be laid before Congress that they Diay de- 
cide whether the defect has been in the evidence of guilt, or in the law, or in the 
application of the law, and that they may provide the proper remedy for the past 
and the future." What "remedy" for the past could Congress apply, after the 
ruling of the Supreme Judge in Burr's case ? Did the President design by some 
extra-Constitutional act again to arraign Burr? There was, in truth, no necessity 
for this re-examination of witnesses simply for their testimony, for the good reason 
that the entire trial and evidence already had been fully reported for publication, 
giving to Congress all the information possible. The President must have had 
some other motive for his suggestion than to preserve testimony. 



TRIAL FOE MISDEMEANOR. 821 

change it proves liis ' easy virtue' and adds the crime of forgery 
to bis other sins of commission. The original was strong 
enough and brazen enough for its author's condemnation : that 
Wilkinson could make it a little stronger showed more zeal 
than honesty. When Burr explained, upon his first discovery 
of his confederate's defection : "As to any projects which may 
have been formed between General Wilkinson and myself 
heretofore, they are now completely frustrated by the perfidi- 
ous conduct of Wilkinson, and the world must pronounce him 
a perfidious villain. If I am sacrificed my portfolio will prove 
him to be such," he not only expressed his own convictions 
but interpreted the verdict which time is afiixing to the Gene- 
ral's character.^ 

The trial for misdemeanor ended only wnth the last week of 
October, and resulted in his acquittal on the technical ground 
that the offense, was not, as charged in the indictment, com- 
mitted in Virginia, but in Ohio. The decision of the Court 
was, that Burr and Blennerhassett should give bail in the sum 
of three thousand dollars each, for appearance in Ohio for fur- 
ther trial — a decision at once assailed by Jefierson's en.emies 
and Burr's friends as a concession to the powers at Washing- 
ton, whose interest in a conviction of some kind it must be 
confessed was not without a delicate relation to their own po- 
sition. 

The acquittal of Burr on the indictment for treason was 
followed by the abandonment of similar indictments against 
the other parties. The trial in Ohio never transpired — both 

* Hildreth, in his " History," [2d series vol. ii. page 671] defends Wilkinson. He 
says : " The Federal newspapers eagerly caught up and repeated the calumnies ; 
and, being subsequently urged by John Randolph, and other bitter and persevering 
enemies of Wilkinson, they became matters of investigation by committees of Con- 
gress and military courts. The honorable acquittals of Wilkinson pronounced by 
these tribunals, after a thorough sifting Of the facts, seem well sustained by the 
evidence. Yet such charges, once made, are with great difficulty wholly silenced ; 
and these insinuations against Wilkinson still continue to float in the public mind, 
and to be rashly repeated to his injury by writers who know very little of the 
facts." We fear this generally accurate writer is the one amenable to the charge 
of knowing " very little of the facts." The " calumnies" are now not only not 
known to have been calumnies but that half was not suspecUd which was true of 
him. See " Wilkinson's Conspiracy," page 181. 

40 



822 CONSPIRACY OF BURR. 

Burr and Blennerhassett forfeiting their recognizances — tlie 
matter thereupon being dropped. Floyd was tried in Indiana 
for misdemeanor and found guilty of having set on foot a mil- 
itary expedition against the provinces of Spain ; but, no pun- 
ishment resulted. Judge Workman, of New Orleans, was tried 
on a similar charge, but was acquitted. His chief oifense was 
in sustaining the right of his court to issue writs oiluibeas cor- 
pus in spite of Wilkinson's military orders * for the arrest of 
persons sxis'pected of knowing something of Burr's designs. 

With this ends the story of Burr's Conspiracy. We have 
recorded its leading incidents ; and, out of the multiplicity of 
documents submitted, have endeavored to give a correct inter- 
pretation to events and to testimony. 

The fact that evidence sufficient for conviction was not found 
does not absolve the Conspirator from guilt ; but, we are in- 
clined to judge less harshly of his schemes when we consider 
the leading part played by Wilkinson and the immunity shown 
to that individual's crimes. He not only retained the conii- 
dence of Jefferson but of his successor, and only retired from 
the service of the United States" after the disasters of 1813-1-i 
proved his wretched incompetency. He had conceived, and 
labored for, the separation of the West from the East years be- 
fore Burr had dreamed of such a thing ; he took Spanish 
money, and, while holdmg an important office under the Fed- 
eral Government, was plotting, with other leading citizens, to 
betray Kentucky into the hands of a foreign power. And yet, 
his accomplices in that infamous sale and cession were retain- 
ed in important Federal offices after their guilt became known, 
and one of them (George Nicholas) acted as Mr. Jefferson's 
chief instrument in forcing through the Kentucky Legislature 
the resolutions of '98. When we witness the immunity shown 
to these conspirators, and to the honors heaped upon them by 
'democratic' administrations, we can consistently call for Burr's 
sacrifice only after demanding that they too shall suffer, in 

* It would be well for those enemies of the Administration in 1863 who declaim- 
ed against " arbitrary arrests" and denied the military right of a suspension of the 
writ of habeas corpm to study the history of Wilkinson's high handed operations ia 
New Orleans — operatioua which Thomas Jefferson sanctioned. 



PRO AND CON. 823 

public estimation, for tlieir sins against tlie State. Burr's crime 
did not, in the estimation of Iiis prosecutors, consist in levjang 
war against Spain. Mr. Jefferson was only awaiting the pro- 
per moment to cany out the design of invading Mexico. In- 
deed, he had elaborated upon Burr's programme by including 
Cuba in the spoils. He wrote, Aug. 16th (1807) : 

"I had rather have war against Spain than not, if we go to war 
against England. Our Southern defensive force can take the Floi'idas, 
volunteers for a Mexican army will flock to our standard, and rich 
pabulum will be oflered to our privateers in the plunder of their 
commerce and coasts. Probable Cuba would add itself to our Con- 
federation." 

Had Aaron Burr written such a letter it would have been 
pronounced 'just like the audacious adventurer.' His indict- 
ment was for treason — levying war against his own country. 
As that was not proven^ as no evidence was produced to sub- 
stantiate the overt act, there now really is much less testimony 
of Burr's actual guilt than of the guilt of the Kentucky Con- 
spirators of 1785. It is true that, in the report afterwards 
made by John Quincy Adams (November 30th, 1807) as chair- 
man of the Senate Committee to consider the case of John 
Smith — Senator from Ohio, charged with knowledge of, and 
co-operation in, Burr's schemes — the guilt of Burr was presum- 
ed to be conclusive, and vast credit was accorded to the Presi- 
dent for his vigilance and energy in frustrating the plot ; but, 
that report, written under the spur of the intense feeling pre- 
vailing against Burr, does not make the case of the prosecution 
any stronger. We who have witnessed the gigantic conspiracy 
of 1860-61, which fortified itself by the resolutions of '98, will 
be less liable to hang and quarter the adventurer of 1806-7 
than the author of those revolutionary resolves : while we ex- 
press our just detestation of Burr let us not forget to give him 
the benefit of a comparison with his successors in the crime of 
secession and revolution. 



Burr's succeeding fortunes were those of an outlawed citi- 
zen and distrusted man. He was secreted by his friends in 
New York and New Jersey until the succeeding summer, 
when, under the disguised name of Edwards, he was placed 



o24 CONSPIRACY OF BUER. 

on board of a packet ship, by a small boat, whicli put out from 
Staten Island. In this packet he reached England in safety. 
No sooner was he on English soil than his fertile mind began 
to work, and the ex-Yice President soon was an admitted 
guest of Prime Ministers and men of influence. But this con- 
fidence was short lived. "When he supposed himself secure in 
favor an order came for his exile, and, against his wishes he 
became a wanderer over Europe, having experiences novel 
even to his novel life. He was reduced quite to beggary — 
was everywhere distrusted, and yet, was Aaron Burr through 
all — the accomplished gentleman and insincere friend. He 
returned to the United States in disguise, early in 1812, and 
again took up his residence in New York, where he remained 
— unmolested, except by his old " Mexican" creditors — up to 
the close of his life, Sept. 14th, 1836. He obtained a lucrative 
practice at the bar, and, had he been otherwise than a person 
reckless of his charities and waste of money, might have amass- 
ed a fortune.^ 

* Eandall's picture of him (as given in his " Life of Jeflferson," vol. iii. pages 221 
-22) is the merest caricature. He was not shunned of men nor an outlaw afraid of 
his own presence. He practiced law with extraordinary success from 1814 to 
1828, when old age began to tell upon him. He had many and influential friends 
— not one of whom would have permitted him to want. He was cared for by a 
devoted female friend, whose last kind offices afford a touching relief to the wretch- 
ed history of his reckless, heartless, profligate life. 



THE NEW ENGLAND DISCONTENTS, 1807-14. 



Disaffection between the JSTorthern and Southern States 
of the Union became a recognized fact at an early day. ^ The 
Convention which formed the Constitution was not harmoni- 
ous ; nor did that instrument, after its adoption, win a unani- 
mous acquiescence. ] It was a mass of compromises ; the Fede- 
ral authority conceding to that of the States — the Northern or 
commercial conceding to the Southern or agricultural section 
— the majority of the North conceding to the minority of the 
South, by granting a representation on Slaves.' These conces- 
sions reconciled but did not satisfy men. States and sections. 
As the instrument had been adopted in Convention only after 
prolonged opposition, so it excited among the people a spirit 
of contention which threatened its rejection by the State Legis- 
latures. It was regarded in the various lights of " an experi- 
ment," a "consolidated tyranny," a "centralization fatal to 
State independence," a " stepping stone to monarchy," &c. 
Washington said of it : " there are some things in it which 
never did and never will obtain my cordial approbation." Pat- 
rick Henry denounced it as inimical ,to the liberties of the peo- 
ple. Franklin said, in the Convention: "I consent to this 
Constitution because I expect no better." 

The attempt to construct a consolidated government out of 
states, diverse in interests, each jealous of its sovereignty, was 
" an experiment ;" and Washington's expression of surprise, 
that any arrangement had been made, was justified by the re- 
sult eventually achieved in the adoption of the Federal organ- 
ic law. He said : "It appears to me little short of a mu\acle 
that the delegates from so many States, different from each 
other in their manners, cu'cumstances and prejudices, should 



826 THE NEW ENGLAND DISCONTENTS. 

unite in forming a system of National Government so little 
liable to well founded objections ;" uttering, however, in the 
same paragraph, his own qualified acceptance of the instru- 
ment : "Nor am I yet such an enthusiastic, partial or indis- 
'.riminating admirer of it as not to perceive it is tinctured with 
some real though not radical defects." Many, who either as- 
sisted in the construction of the new Government, or took part 
in the discussions which followed, dissented while they ap- 
proved — accepted because it was the best to be obtained. So 
strong was the desire for a "more perfect Union," so alarming 
the disorders threatening, that men of divers opinions struck 
palms in token of brotherhood and prepared conscientiously to 
enforce what they had created. But this enforcement excited 
different views regarding the powers bestowed upon the Execu- 
tive, upon Congress, and reserved to the States. _ These differ- 
ences soon assumed a "representative" form./ Ere Washing- 
ton's first term had expired, opposition to his construction of 
the Constitution took up even an armed form, and force be- 
came necessary to suppress the insurrection. This conflict of 
opinion created an antagonistic element which expressed itself 
in the various forms of open and secret organizations — some of 
them treasonable and others quite legitimate under the assured 
liberty of thought and speech. They all finally centralized 
around Thomas Jefferson. With Aaron Burr, Madison, Geo. 
Clinton, Governor Miflin and others, he laid the foundation of 
what soon was known as the anti-Federal or Eepublican party, 
whose distinctive tenets were, in 1798, embodied in the resolu- 
tions prepared by Jefferson for the Kentucky Eepublicans, and 
in the resolutions, with their accompanying address, prepared 
by Madison for the Virginia Legislature. Under the force of 
this opposition Jefferson became President in 1801 and Aaron 
Burr Vice President. Under their shrewd management and 
patronage the party fathered by Washington, Hamilton, John 
Adams, Jay, Judge Marshall, &c., passed from power ; and 
thenceforward, for a term nearly unbroken of forty years, the 
Eepublicans (or Democrats, as they preferred to be known) 
controlled the destinies of the Eepublic. That they did not 
control them to the satisfaction of the New England States du- 



BRITISH ORDERS IN COUNCIL. 827 

ring the period in whicli Virginia Presidents ruled successively, 
for twenty-four years, is now a matter of History. .■ 

In this paper we propose to treat of the discontent which 
prevailed in the North-Eastern States after the accession to 
power of the Republicans or Democrats — to advert to that train 
of causes which resulted in the Hartford Convention, 

The contest of Crowns in Europe, during Napoleon's reign, 
affected the entire civilized world. French and English com- 
merce having been, by the fortunes of war, mutually driven 
from the seas, left the carrying trade in neutral hands. The 
New England States of America, then an essentially commer- 
cial community, profited by this trade to an extent which 
quickened all the avenues of public prosperity. Their seaports 
became marts of busy men; their waters floated merchant 
fleets; their mechanics and manufacturers prospered. But, 
this condition of affairs was short-lived. Presuming to dictate 
for a world the two great powers, decreed maritime laws and 
principles of blockade which soon reduced neutral commerce 
to a shadow. In May, 1806, the Ministry of Great Britain 
proclaimed an Order in Council blockading the entire coast 
from Brest, France, to the Elbe, in Germany, and all vessels 
of neutral powers were forbidden to enter any of the ports on 
the line named. This was but a "paper blockade," for Eng- 
land had not vessels enough to spare fi-om active service for 
closing one half of that coast of six hundred miles. ^ Yet, to 
violate that mandate in Council was to incur the penalty of 
reprisals and war. Napoleon retaliated, November 21st of the 
same year, by a decree declaring the entire British coast in a 
state of blockade. England thereupon repeated the terms of 
her paper restriction, and, by a second Order in Council — issu- 
ed 7th January, 1807 — forbidding neutral vessels from trading 
between the ports of France and her allies, or with ports in 

* In view of this and similar paper blockades how sublime becomes the assur- 
ance of that portion of the British public, who, in 1862-3 demanded that our block- 
ade of the Southern coast should be raised because it was not efiBcient ! The stu- 
dent of history discovers remarkable discrepancies between the international 
principles of Great Britain in 1806 and 1862. 



328 THE NEW ENGLAND DISCONTENTS. 

possession of Frencli armies, or, indeed, with any port or coun- 
try from which British vessels were excluded ! 

These purely paper blockades and maritime usurpations, 
characterised by injustice and tyranny, struck a death blow to 
the neutral commerce of Europe — as they, and succeeding de- 
crees, were designed to do ; while they severely crippled the 
commerce of the United States. The orders were followed by 
seizures which, ere long, became not only promiscuous, and 
irregular even under the regulations established by the decrees, 
but were accompanied by infractions of jurisdiction of an inso- 
lent and defiant character. Our own ports were invaded by 
cruisers and oflQ.cers of both belligerents, pursuing one another, 
or seeking for plunder in our ships. English vessels-of-war, 
then wanting men to man them, not only arrogated the right 
of search, but superadded the right of impressment of all who 
had, at any time, been British subjects. Merchant ships, fish- 
ing smacks, coasters, everywhere were overhauled, and every 
Briton — including Irish and Scotch — was mercilessly dragged 
away to serve his Majesty at his Majesty's pleasure. Many so 
seized were American citizens, who had not even been born 
abroad, while the vast majority had, by their oath of allegiance 
and naturalization, obtained the rights of citizenship and pro- 
tection guaranteed by our Constitution. But, the wrong was 
not confined to our merchant marine and to unarmed craft. 
British arrogance proceeded to the extremity of an outrage 
upon an American vessel of war, in American waters — an out- 
rage until then unparalleled for its audacity and brutality. The 
U. S. frigate Chesapeake, of 38 guns. Commodore Barron com- 
manding, having refitted at Portsmouth (Ya.) Navy Yard, 
started for the Mediterranean station June 22d, 1807. Three 
British vessels of war then lay in Lynnhaven Bay, making 
one of our ports their rendezvous. One of them, the Leopard, 
of 50 guns, weiglxed anchor and stood out of the Capes ahead 
of the Federal frigate. When three leagues at sea the Leojxird 
hailed, and sent a boat to the ChesapeaJce with " dispatches" to 
Barron from Yice Admiral Berkley. These dispatches simply 
consisted of an order-to search the Federal vessel for "desert- 
ers." Barron knew of no "deserters," and replied that he 



BRITISH NAVAL OUTRAGE. 829 



should not permit his men to be mustered. The Leopard then 
gained the weather quarter and again hailed, to which Barron 
replied that he did not understand that second summons. A 
single ball was the Briton's answer, to be followed, in a mo- 
ment, by bis full broadside. For fifteen minutes the Leopard's 
guns were rapidly discharged, cutting the American frignte 
severely. Three of her crew were killed and eighteen wound- 
ed. Barron at length struck his flag, having fired but one gun. 
His entire decks were so cluttered with material and baggage 
not yet stowed away that not a single gun was in working 
order. Had she been in trim it is probable he would have 
sunk \hQ Leopard; in which case he would have had to engage 
the two remaining ships. The surrender of the ChesapeaJce 
was twice refused, but four of her men were borne away. This 
high handed act against a nation at peace with Great Britain 
created an excitement without bounds. On all hands the peo- 
ple plead for the wrong to be avenged. Jefferson at once start- 
ed a vessel with dispatches for Mr. Munroe, our Minister to 
England, to demand satisfaction for the outrage. This step 
was followed, July 2d, by a proclamation forbidding the wa- 
ters of the United States to all British vessels of war unless in 
distress, or acting as bearer of dispatches. The Virginia mili- 
tia were called out, and proceeded to Norfolk and vicinity, to 
assist in driving the British fleet out of Hampton Eoads. Or- 
ders were issued to the commandants of New York, Charleston 
and New Orleans to put their defenses in the best possible or- 
der. Congress was called to meet October 26th, by which date 
it was thought an answer must arrive to the demand for satis- 
faction. Congress assembled to learn that the British Ministry 
would treat, but did not wish to consider together Mr. Munroe's 
two demands, viz.: for satisfaction and for security from further 
impressments. This was but a contemptible expedient to gain 
time. Jefferson and Congress so thought, and appropriations 
for harbor defence by gunboats and fortifications were passed 
by heavy majorities. The " Committee on Aggressions" 
brought forward three bills, voting, in the aggregate, one mil- 
lion four hundred and fifty two thousand dollars. 

rln the midst of discussions on these measures Jefferson trans- 
41 



330 THE NEW ENGLAND DISCONTENTS. 

mittecl to Congress (Dec. 16tli) a message containing important 
dispatches regarding new decrees made by the British Ministry, 
and new interpretations given by the French, to the Berhn de- 
cree of November 21st, 1806. The danger was so imminent 
that the President recommended an embargo on our commerce 
— thus, as he assumed, to preserve our seamen from impress- 
ment, our property from seizure and confiscation, and deny to 
our two enemies the food which both looked for from our ple- 
thoric graneries. This very significant and important recom- 
mendation was acted upon with almost unseemly haste. It 
was a deadly blow to our already crippled commerce : to 
New England it was the knell of her prosperity, threatening all 
branches of her trade and industry with overwhelming ruin. 
Even the coasting and fishing trade was estopped by restric- 
tions, so radical was the measure. After only four hours' dis- 
cussion the bill passed in the Senate, Dec. 18th. The House 
amended and passed the act Dec. 22d, by a vote of 82 to 4A. 
The Senate concurred in the slight House amendments, the 
President, without an hour's delay, signed the bill, and the 
Embargo became the law of the land. 

All this action, it will be seen, was predicated on the dis- 
patches from Armstrong, our Minister to France. If its pro- 
priety was doubted all doubts for the moment were forgotten 
when news came of England's new Order in Council, dated 
Nov. 11th, 1807, but not promulgated until Nov. 17th. These 
orders " prohibited any neutral trade with France or her allies, 
in other words, with the whole of Europe, Sweden excepted, 
unless through Great Britain. All neutral vessels, whatever 
tneir cargoes, bound to any port of France or her allies, were 
required, under pain of capture and condemnation, first to 
touch at some British or Irish port, and there to pay such re- 
exportation duties as might be imposed, and to obtain, by the 
payment of certain fees, a British license to trade to the Conti- 
nent. Nor was any export to be allowed of the produce of 
France or her allies except in vessels which had complied with 
the foregoing regulation, all such vessels being further requir- 
ed to return to some British or Irish port, and there to unlade 



ENFORCEMENT OF THE EMBARGO. 331 

their cargoes, as a preliminary to shipment to the neutral 
country." ♦ 

This edict elicited from Napoleon his celebrated Milan de- 
cree of Dec. 17th, 1807, confirming and extending the provi- 
gions of his Berlin decree. This new mandate of the ruler of 
Europe, and would-be ruler of the world, " denationalized and 
forfeited every vessel which should submit to be searched by 
a British cruiser, or should pay any tax, duty, or license mo- 
ney to the British government, or should be found on the high 
seas or elsewhere, bound to or from any British port, Spain 
and Holland, with their usual subserviency, forthwith issued 
similar decrees." 

Under the press of these accumulated impositions the Em- 
bargo was enforced ; but, not all the j ustification urged by its 
friends could reconcile the New England people to its destruc- 
tive operation. It was a , source of indignant comment in all 
circles. How to evade it soon became the study of the rest- 
less, sagacious vessel owners and officers. The more Govern- 
ment tried to punish violators the greater became the odium, 
attached to the law, which was pronounced unnecessary, uncot - 
stitutional, arbitrary, and levied by the agricultural South re 
gardless of the rights, interests and wishes of the commercial 
_Nortkj Town meetings denounced it ; magistrates refused l ) 
lend their assistance in its enforcement ; smuggling and e\'a- 
sion were not regarded as dishonorable. St. Mary's, in Geor- 
gia, and Eastport, in Maine, became great entrepots for the con- 
traband trade. Situated on the frontiers, with navigable rivers 
reaching into the interior, they were very available for receiv- 
ing goods and passing provisions over the line to British and 
Spanish hands, from whence they found their way to Halifax, 
on the North, and to the West Indies on the South. Large 
quantities also passed, by way of Lake Champlain and over the 
Vermont line into Canada. Three supplementary acts were 
passed to circumvent these violators, but, in proportion as 
smuggling suffered, detestation of the law increased. So furi- 
ous grew the sentiment against it that not a few of its friends 
in Congress anxiously hoped for an early expiration of the 
act 



332 THE NEW ENGLAND DISCONTENTS. 

The Massachusetts Legislature upon its convention in June, 
1808 immediately grappled with the anomalous position of 
trade and navigation, " a question," says Hildreth, " in which 
that State was deeply interested, as owner of more than one 
third of the shipping of the Union. The views of the majority 
were expressed in a series of able resolutions, which began by 
calling in question the constitutional power of Congress to im- 
pose an unlimited embargo — an experiment, so far as it had in 
view the coercion of foreign nations, novel and dangerous, 
doubtful in its effects abroad, and full of disaster at home. 
Supposing the embargo to be constitutional, yet the vast au- 
thority delegated to the President to regulate the coasting trade, 
and to grant exemptions and dispensations from the rigor of 
the law, was denounced as a dangerous opening for partiality, 
tending to prepare the country for the habitual surrender of 
the legislative power into a single hand. Though our true 
policy was a peaceful one, the people of Massachusetts would 
ever be ready to endure all privations, and to make every ex- 
ertion to support the dignity and to enforce the reasonable 
pretensions of the nation. The resources of the country being 
fully adequate to the protection of its maritime and territorial 
rights, they ought to be directed and employed in such prepa- 
rations as the experience of ages had demonstrated to be alone 
effectual for that purpose. A naval force was especially neces- 
sary, and the senators and representatives of Massachusetts 
were pressed to urge upon Congress effectual steps in that di- 
rection. The General Government having been expressly in- 
stituted to provide for the common defense and general welfare, 
and to preserve the blessings of liberty, while it secures those 
inestimable objects by an equal and paternal solicitude for the 
various sections of the Union, must be supported at every ex- 
pense and every hazard ; but the General Government 'was one 
thing, and the administration of it another ; that administration 
being only entitled to the confidence of the people, when, by a 
full, fair, and frequent display of its purposes and policy, it 
preserved itself from the imputation of partiality and preju- 
dice, and of undue fear and affection in the conduct of foreign 
as well as of domestic affairs." 



/ 



THE ENFORCING ACT. 333 

These resolutions fairly interpreted tlie feeling of the people. 
They were bitterness itself to the President, casting in his face, 
as they did, a want of confidence in his use of power and in 
his impartiality. John Quincy Adams, then acting with the 
Administration party, refused to endorse the course prescribed 
for him and was superceded by the election of James Lloyd, a 
merchant and ship owner of Boston. In this procedure Adams 
assumed to discover the operations of the old " Essex Junto," 
in which the elder Adams had found an unrelenting enemy to 
his French treaty and concession to Democratic clamor. This 
Junto, John Quincy Adams regarded as treasonable — aiming 
to throw the country under British domination ; and the Ee- 
publicans (Democrats) were not slow to discover in every Fed- 
eralist an enemy to the Union and Constitution. The Admin- 
istration partisans resolved not to repeal but to renew these 
restrictions on commerce, and, in spite of the most strenuous 
opposition of the Federalists of New England, succeeded in 
forcing through Congress (Jan. 9th, 1809) what was termed the 
Enforcing Act The action which followed this legislation is 
thus chronicled by Hildreth : 

" Already, before the passage of the Enforcing Act, public meetings 
began to be held in the mercantile towns of New England, to jn-otest 
against it. Similar meetings were also held in Albany and the city of 
New York. The leading Federal newspapers in Boston announced its 
passage with mourning columns, and with the motto, ' Liberty is dead !' 
General Lincoln, the collector, now very old and infirm, resigned his 
office, as did also the dej^uty collector, rather than undertake to enforce 
an act so unpopular. Other custom-house officers at other joorts follow- 
ed their example. Th,e merchants, indeed, totally denying the consti- 
tutionality of the act, gave fair warning that, for every seizure of their 
property under it, they should commence suits in the State courts ; a 
procedure, as it might be no easy matter for the officers to procure bail, 
likely to end in their committal to prison. 

" A Boston town-meeting, regularly called, after a warm struggle be- 
tween the opposers of the embargo and the friends of the Administra- 
tion, in which the latter were completely beaten, agreed ujjon a strong 
memorial to the Legislature about to meet, denouncing the Enforcing 
Act as arbitrary and unconstitutional. This meeting resolved ' not vol- 
untarily to assist in carrying it into execution ; and that all who should 
do so ought to be considered as enemies of the Constitution of the 



334 THE NEW ENGLAND DISCONTENTS. 

United States, enemies of the State of Massachusetts, and hostile to the 
liberties of the people.' " 

The answer of the Legislature was equally significant. The 
Lieutenant-Governor, Lincoln, a Democrat — Governor Sullivan 
being dead — had demanded in his first message that something 
be done to restore the confidence of the National Administra- 
tion in Massachusetts loyalty. The response was very like a 
threat. Says the historian : 

" Care was taken explicitly to disavow any disposition to separate 
from the Union, or intention to encourage resistance to the laws. At 
the same time, it was pretty plainly intimated that the embargo and its 
supplements were not laws. ' The people of New England,' said the 
Senate, ' perfectly understand the distinction between the Constitution 
and the Administration. They are as sincerely attached to the Consti- 
tution as any portion of the United States. They may be put under 
the ban of the empire, but they have no intention of abandoning the 
Union.' Adherence to the Union did not, however, require even pas- 
sive obedience to unconstitutional and ruinous stretches of power. ' On 
such occasions, passive obedience would, on the part of the j)eople, be a 
breach of their allegiance, and, on our part, treachery and jjerjury. The 
peojjle have not sent us hei-e to surrender their rights, but to maintain 
and defend them ; and we have no authority to dispense with the duties 
thus solemnly imposed.' 

" At the very opening of the session, a great mass of petitions had 
been jjresented to the House from various town-meetings. Upon these 
petitions a report was made, concluding with a series of resolutions (in 
which the Senate concurred) pronouncing the late Enforcing Act to l)e, 
in many respects, ' unjust, oppressive, and unconstitutional, and not le- 
gally binding ;' recommending, however, to parties aggrieved by it, ' to 
abstain from forcible resistance, and to apply for remedy in a peaceful 
manner to the laws of the commonwealth.' A strong memorial to Con- 
gress against the embargo was presently adopted, and a bill was passL'd, 
prohibiting, under high penalties, any searches of dwelling-houses, un- 
less by virtue of warrants issued on complaints supported by oath — a 
particular in which the Enforcing Act Avas thought to trench upon the 
Constitutions both of the State and the Union. This bill, however, 
failed to become a law, by reason of the executive veto. 

"An order from Washington, in consequence of the resignation of 
the collector of Boston, to the commandant of the fort in the harbor, to 
allow no vessel to pass, though countermanded a few days after, served 
to add to the excitement. All the ships hoisted their flags at half must. 
It was not without reason that Randolijh warned the Administration 
that they were treading fast in the fatal footsteps of Lord North." 



HOSTILE ATTITUDE TAKEN. 835 

Nor was Massacliusetts alone in assuming an attitude of 
menace. Connecticut was equally decided in her views of the 
embargo and its collateral acts, f Governor Trumbull declined 
(Feb. 4th, 1809) to comply with the President's circular for 
the designation of special officers of militia on whom the col- 
lectors of the customs might call for aid. He did not know, 
so he stated, of any authority under which such appointments 
could be made. Instead of detaching militia to aid the col-, 
lectors, he summoned the Legislature to meet ; in his opening; 
address (Feb. 23) to which he took the ground that, on great' 
emergencies, when the National Legislature had been led to, 
overstep its constitutional power, it became the right and duty? 
of the State Legislatures ' to interpose their protecting shield 
between the rights and liberties of the people and the assumed ) 
power of the Greneral Government.'] The session resulted in 
the adoption of measures very similar to those of Massachu- 
setts." In all the New England States, indeed, as well as in 
New York, the reaction was very perceptibly gaining ground, 
and in Congress the tide began to turn ; the Administration 
during January rapidly lost ground. ^Democratic members 
from the North deserted a restrictive policy, opposing both 
embargo and war. A sensible excitement pervaded Adminis- 
tration circles. Every effort, private and parliamentary, was 
used to steady the refluent tide but to no purpose. The month 
of February was passed in highly exciting debate, which final- 
ly ended in the ostensible repeal of the embargo by the adop- . 
tion of a new act, of anomalous character, full of apparent re- 
strictions upon commerce ; but, so illy constructed was the law 
as to open ways and means of evasion, enough almost to satisfy 
the people that evasion was designed ! 

Pending this Congressional excitement sentiments inimical 
to the integrity of the Eepublic itself were expressed by a 
powerful and significant address published by the Massachu- 
setts Legislature at the close of its session (March 2d, 1809). 
This document severely censured the pro-French policy and 
anti-Britain discrimination of the President, but found the evil 
to lie in the power conferred upon the Executive, and upon 
the Southern States which then held the scale of Congress in 



836 THE NEW ENGLAND DISCONTENTS. 

f their keeping by virtue of the three-fifths' slave representation) 
1 chxuse. 1 The address declared it as an indispensable means 
toward a better and more equitable administration of the Gov- 
ernment that the Constitution should be so amended as to de- 
prive the Slave States of their exceptional representation. 
Other amendments were suggested which should positively 
"secure commerce and navigation from a repetition of invidi- 
ous and destructive theories^ The address added : 

" Nothing less than a perfect union and intelligence among the East- 
ern States can preserve to them any share of influence in the National 
Government. Without influence, they can expect no regard tp their in- 
terests, but are exposed to the efliect of a policy whose olyect will be to 
secure power and office with a view to local and personal aggrandize- 
ment; and to make them colonial governments, subject to the worst form 
of domination, that of one member of a confederacy over another. In- 
deed, the present state of our connection is not far from that condition. 
The late election of Eepresentatives to Congress, and the vote for Presi- 
dent, plainly demonstrate the disapprobation of the present system by 
a great majority of the Eastern people. Mr. Madison, who was known 
to favor it, had not a vote in those States except in Vermont, and re- 
cent elections there afford evidence that at this moment he would have 
none. On the other hand, in the Southern States, from the artificial 
popularity of this fatal system, his majority has been triumi^hant. The 
same division is apjjarent in Congress. The known wishes of the East- 
ern States have been not merely neglected, but rejected with threaten- 
iugs and contempt. Politicians of yesterday, from the backwoods and 
mountains, vie with each other in the language of insult and defiance ; 
and the men whom you delight to honor, and the great majority of 
those who have the deepest interests at stake in the welfare of the coun- 
try, are stigmatized as a corrupt and seditious part of the community. 
Even when those of your own reisresentatives, who have encouraged by 
their countenance this presumptuous conduct, discovering their errors, 
are desirous to recede, repentance comes too late. Thus, under new 
names, but with the same views, the embargo system is still visited 
upon our unhappy country, in spite of the opposition of some of those 
who appear too late desirous of retrieving their country from ruin. 
Choose, then, fellow-citizens, between the condition of citizens of a Free 
State, possessing its equal weight and influence in the National Govern- 
ment, or that of a colony, free in name, but in fact enslaved by sister 
States." 

/ This document awakened intense feeling. It was the germ) 

\ of the Hai'tford Convention.) Its declarations and their natural 

sequence, occasioned anxiety, particularly as it was seconded 



KECALL OF THE BRITISH MINISTER. 837 

hj a sudden increase of Federalist strengtli. Not only in New 
England but in New York, and even in Maryland, they won 
the popular branches of the Legislature — a result astounding 
to the Democrats, whose triumphs had been so complete, and 
whose tactics had been so potent as to lead them to ideas of a 
life lease on power. 

These events were followed by the announcement, April 17th, 
that a treaty had been concluded with Mr. Erskine, the British 
Minister, by which all matters in dispute with his Grovernment 
were provisionally settled. A proclamation issued announc- 
ing a cessation of the embargo and non-intercourse so far as 
related to Great Britain and her dependencies, after June 10th. 
This news spread like wild-fire throughout the country, giving 
to the seaport towns in particular the most unalloyed satisfac- 
tion. 

Thus, for the moment, all things seemed propitious, Madi- 
son, the newly elected President, in negotiating with Erskine, 
appeared to Federalists to have abandoned the " persecuting 
policy" of his predecessor. Hence New England visibly sub- 
sided in excitement The French Minister at Washington 
grew indignant over the Erskine treaty and growled, and Con- 
gress legislated a little for his satisfaction by an act dropping 
the embargo, and, with it, the provision excluding foreign arm- 
ed vessels — which gave to French vessels of war the right of 
entry, rendezvous and supply in our ports. Congress ad- 
journed June 28th, after its five weeks' session, in great good 
feeling. 

All was changed again, in a few weeks of comparative quiet. 
July 20th the news arrived that the British Ministry had re- 
jected Erskine's treaty! This announcement threw all circles 
once more into ferment. The excitement which followed was 
indeed great, f The British Premier, Canning, refusing to ac- 
cept Erskine's arrangement, insisted that his representative had 
exceeded his powers, and had, also, misjudged" the true posi- 
tion of affairs. The offending minister therefore was recalled 
and "Copenhagen" Jackson sent in his stead. With Jackson 
some sharp correspondence soon^ succeeded. Madison insisted, 
much to Jackson's surprise, that all communication between 
42 



338 THE NEW ENGLAND DISCONTENTS. 

them should be reduced to writing. A lengthy negotiation foi 
explanations and new terms of accommodation of differences 
followed. Jackson's intercourse with the Administration was 
characterised by no little rhetorical severity, and, so offensive 
at length did he become, that our Secretary of State refused 
further correspondence with him (Nov. 8th) as preliminary to 
an application for his recall. Whereupon the British embas- 
sador withdrew to New York to await the order of his govern- 
ment. He addressed (Nov. 13th) a circular to the British con 
suls in the United States to notify them of his withdrawal, and 
accompanied this notification with an abstract of his last com- 
munication, made through his secretarj^, in rej)ly to the notice 
of his rejection by our Government. This unusual procedure 
was construed as an insult — for, what had consuls to do with 
ministerial differences ? It savored strongly of the offensive 
course pursued by the little Frenchman, Genet, in threatening 
an appeal from the Government to the people, during Wash- 
ington's administration. 

The efforts of Congress — which assembled Nov. 29th, 1809 
— were directed to a revision of the laws regulating, or, rather, 
restricting commerce. Debate of a very acrimonious character 
was the consequence. No distinctive party lines were drawn. 
The New England State representatives, assisted by members 
from other sections, pressed the repeal of all laws burdening 
trade, assuming that, in spite of the French and English retal- 
iatory decrees, American ingenuity could and would provide 
for the protection of American property and honor ; but, as the 
Democrats had embraced the embargo and the non-intercourse 
policy as their own, a Democratic administration could not 
abandon it without loss of prestige. John Eandolph, of Vir- 
ginia, made this presentment of the case : 

t " The history of that act (theEmbargo) was very extraordinary. When 
originally iatroduced, not a single person had pretended that, absolute- 
ly and by itself, it was a good measure. During the debate upon it it 
bad gained no friends, and yet it had passed by a two-thirds' vote. 
During the present session it had been reprobated by every body of all 
parties, in the House and out of it ; and yet, after a five months' session, 
it still remained on the statute-book ! And why ? Because as the ma- 
jority pretended, it could not be re2:)ealed without the abandonment of 



FRENCH SPOLIATIONS. 839 

national honor ! An unwise, passionate and ill-informed majority had 
brought the nation into a Mse and ruinous position, and the national 
honor required us to stay there ! To give up this wretched Non-import- 
ation Act without some equally wretched substitute for it, would be, it 
was pretended, unconditional submission and irretrievable disgrace." 

Despite Congressional restrictions, English Orders and French 
Decrees, an extensive American commerce was afloat during 
the latter part of the year 1809 — much of it suddenly launched 
for a market under the brief relief afforded by the temporary 
operation of the Erskine treaty. This commerce English offi- 
cers were instructed to respect under certain provisions ; but 
Buonaparte seized every vessel, indiscriminately, which fell in 
French hands, ao matter what her register or flag. Ail Amer- 
ican craft so seized were ordered to confiscation and sale. /'This 
outrageous conduct was defended with infinite audacity by the 
French Prime Minister, Duke of Cadore, as necessary, because 
the American Government had not yet taken measures against 
the unprovoked aggressions of England on the rights of neu- 
trals ! and because France, who had given no cause of offense, 
was included in the penalties of the non-intercourse act of 
1809 ! Our Minister to France, Armstrong, came forward with 
an able and high toned remonstrance against tyrannical confis- 
cation of a neutral's property, wherever found. He pointed 
out, with great directness, the inconsistency of Cadore's assump- 
tions in the matter. The only answer vouchsafed was the 
Rambouillet decree of March 23d, 1810, ordering the condem- 
nation and sale of one hundred and thirty- two American ves- 
sels, with their cargoes — in all valued at about eight millions 
of dollars ! Like confiscation .was to be visited upon any 
American vessel caught in any French port or ports held by 
French arms. Wrong, insult and disregard of maritime usage 
could not go farther. An immediate declaration of war against 
France would have been justified. 

But, not to dwell too closely upon the extraordinary circum- 
stances of our Euro}>ean relations in 1810 and 1811, we may 
come to results. / The pressure for war against England be-\ 
came, under the quickening of popular feeling, so strong as \ 
scarcely to afford a hope of peaceful reconciliation of differ- 
ences with that power. That such a war was calculated im 



. 340 THE NEW ENGLAND DISCONTENTS. 

measurably to assist Buonaparte was not denied. Said JoLn 
Randolph, in his great speech delivered Dec. 11th, 1810, against 
the drift of the current towards a war with Great Britain : 

" And sliuU Rei^ublicans become the instruments of him who has su- 
perseded the title of Attila to be called the scourge of God ? If, instead 
of being as I am, my memory clouded, my intellect stupefied, my strength 
and spirits exhausted, I had the completest command of my faculties, I 
should still fail to give utterance to that strong detestation which I feel 
toward such characters as Genghis, Tamerlane, Kouli Khan and Buona- 
parte, malefactors of the human race, who grind down men into mere 
material of their impious and bloody ambition ! Yet, under all the ac- 
cumulated wrongs, and insults, and robberies of the last of these chief- 
tains, we are about to become a party to his views, a partner in his 
wars ! " 

But, it was of no avail. The point steadily kept in view by 
the popular leaders was_to secure a solidification of sentiment 
on the course adopted. \ Under the impetus of Southern and 
Western men, the Congressional attitude of war was assumed. 
During January, February, March, April, May and June, 1812, 
nothing was heard but preparations for a second measuring of 
strength with our old enemy, j The war spirit grew rapidly. 
As Brackenridge truthfully said : " the habits of a people, who 
had been thirty years at peace, and constantly occupied in in- 
dustrious callings could not be changed suddenly : but men 
are by nature warlike, and they cannot exist long in the midst 
of martial scenes without catching their spirit." This fact the 
leaders of the war party counted upon : by " precipitating" ac- 
tion they sought to render the popular voice unanimous. Leg- 
islation, however, was too reckless to escape animadversion. It 
soon became hasty, ill-considered and well calculated to arouse 
the still unawed opposition by its evidently partisan nature. 
New England sought for a navy, but it was denied. ,'' Extend 
give enlistments were ordered and heavy appropriations voted. ! 
Yet no declaration of war was made. The hope of Madison 
was to force England to an accommodation — to compel her, by 
a show of retaliation, to do us justice, j To this end the Presi- 
dent, in a confidential message to Congress, recommended an 
embargo, to continue in force for a term of sixty days, when, 
if no change was made in Britain's attitude, the declaration of 



JOHN henry's revelations. 341 

war must follow. The new Embargo as it finally passed 
(April 4th) fixed the time for ninety instead of sixty days. It 
prohibited the sailing of any vessel for any foreign port except 
foreign vessels with such cargoes as they had on board at the 
passage of the acts. The measure was sweepingly complete, 
chaining our commerce to the docks with an irreversible knot. 
Madison was measurably sustained in his course by capital 
made from the revelations of one John Henry, an Irishman, 
whose secret " mission" to Massachusetts in 1809 to stir up se- 
dition, he had, for a doceur of fifty thousand dollars, divulged 
to the President. This mercenary professed to have been dis- 
patched by the Governor-General of Canada, Sir James Craig, 
to Boston, early in 1809, to yatch the course of events, to aid 
in developing the spirit of discontent, to labor for the disrup- 
tion of the American Union and for the reannexation of New 
England to the Canadas ! The fellow, it afterwards appeared, 
was in Boston at the time indicated, a frequenter of brothels 
and a companion of disreputable characters generally ; but, 
with all his confessions, he implicated no one — designated no 
special person, act or movement calculated to add to the weight 
of testimony against the New England Federalists. For what 
the enormous sum of fifty thousand dollars was paid it is now 
difiicult to see. In his special message transmitting the dearly 
paid for revelation, the President assumed that Henry's evi- 
dence proved England to have been intriguing for the base 
purpose of exciting sedition, first essaying to*bring about an 
open resistance to the laws ; then, " by introducing a British 
force, to assist in destroying the Union and forming, with the 
Eastern section thereof, aconnection with Great Britain." This, 
for the moment, created renewed feeling of hostility against the 
English and their sympathisers in New England ; but, when 
the whole affair was probed by the New Englanders themselves, 
nothing was discovered which could implicate any American 
born citizen in Henry's professed designs ; and nothing was 
adduced to prove that stipendiary had told the truth. The 
general impression was, that the heavy sum paid for information 
was worse than wasted. It is well to state that Henry, having 



342 THE NEW ENGLAND DISCONTENTS. 

received his money, left tlie country for France hefore his affida- 
vits and papers were made public' 

It was necessary, as Madison then stood, to sustain the war 
policy vigorously or fail of a nomination for the Presidency. 
There was no alternative. That he was at heart against the 
war, admits of no question. He bent before the imperious de- 
mands of the Democratic caucus, led "by Henry Clay, and ac- 
cepted the nomination with its implied responsibilities to press 
the war programme to an immediate and unconditional issue. 
He then indicated his adhesion by proposing the embargo. 
This was followed by his confidential message of June 1st, 
1812, wherein were recited the causes of complaint against 
Great Britain ; "her impressments of our seamen; her infringe- 
ments upon our maritime jurisdiction, and disturbance of the 
peace of our coasts ; her paper blockades, unsupported by any 
adequate force ; her violations of our neutral rights by her or- 
ders in council, and her inflexible determination to maintain 
those orders against all appeals to her justice. Add to this 
her suspected instigation of Indian hostilities ; and her conduct, 
taken together, would be found to amount to war as against 
US, while we remained at peace with her. Under these cir- 
cumstances, it became the duty of the House to consider, as it 
was their constitutional right to decide, whether we should 
longer remain passive under those progressive and accumulated 
wrongs. But, while thus leading the way to war, as if to 
guard against the charge of French influence, so much dwelt 
upon by the Federalists, a caution was added against entangle- 
ment 'in the contests and views of other powers.' France not 

* Too much has been made of this '• spy" by historians. One writes : " The 
fact remains that the British Government had been treacherously endeavoring to 
destroy the Union while professing friendship," &c. The " fact" remains that the 
British Government knew nothing whatever of the " spy's' ' operations, and refus- 
ed to pay him one cent for services rendered ; and that refusal induced Henry to 
turn informer. Nor is it true that the British Government then " professed friend- 
ship :" its Orders in Council show that it both professed and practiced anything 
but friendship for us. Whatever Sir James Craig may have done is not material. 
If ht hired a vagabond to do dirty work, and kept his " mission" a profound secret 
not only from the British Minister to this country, but even from the British Minis- 
try, we can see little propriety for affixing to the British Government any respon- 
Bibility in the matter. 



WAR MEASURES ADOPTED- 848 

only refused all indemnity for former wrongs, but, notwith- 
standing ' tlie repeal of her decrees as they violated the neutral 
rights of the United States,' she still con tinned to authorize 
illegal captures of our ships, attended by the perpetration of 
other outrages. The recommendation, however, of any defini- 
tive measures with regard to her was deferred, in the expecta- 
tion that the result of the unclosed negotiation at Paris would 
speedily enable Congress to decide with greater advantage on 
the course due to the rights, interest and honor of the country." 

John Eandolph — who had struggled violently against the 
precipitation of hostilities and had, while disclaiming association 
with the New Engianders, co-operated with them in opposing 
the schemes of the hot -heads — moved to refer this message to 
the Committee of the Whole, but, as that would open it to a 
fierce struggle on the floor, the message was committed to the 
Committee on Foreign Eelations. ^is Committee, by its 
Chairman, John C. Calhoun, reported (June 3d) for war, at the 
same time introducing a bill declaring war. The struggle in 
the House over this well engineered bill was brief; the friends 
of the measure were too strong for much opposition. A mo- 
tion to include France in the declaration received ten votes ! 
The vote for the bill stood 79 to 49. Its semi-sectional char- 
acter was apparent upon analyzation. Pennsylvania and the 
States to the South and West voted 62 aye, 17 nay. The States 
North of Pennsylvania voted 17 aye, 82 nay. Thirteen North- 
ern and two Southern Democrats voted nay. Many others 
who were opposed to war voted for the act purely for the rea- 
son that it was a "party measure." In the Senate, after vari- 
ous efforts to insert a clause authorising letters of marque and 
reprisal — to include French vessels in the clause — to substitute 
for the original bill such letters both against England and 
France, the bill was brought to a vote and passed 19 to 18 — a 
number of Democrats voting nay. The House concurred in 
the letter of marque clause and the President signed the bill 
June 18th. 

All this was done in secret session. The people, though 
informed by report of the probable result, awaited with intense 
anxiety for the denouement It was received by Democratic 



344 THE NEW ENGLAND DISCONTENTS. 

partisans with favor, but otherwise by their opponents and the 
mercantile interest generally. Then, as at a later day, the 
great mass of foreign population walked their straight course 
to the ballot box with straight Democratic votes in their hanils. 
The foreign element then being composed largely of Irish who 
had fled from the tyranny of British rule, most eagerly en- 
couraged the idea of war with their oppressors. The old French 
faction, with its element of infidelity and love of revolution, 
suddenly revived at the clarion call, for, with them, Buona- 
parte, though an Emperor, still was the representative of inno- 
vation and war against the old order of things, and a war with 
England was to befriend him. There also was a new element 
abroad. The generation of Henry Clay, John C. Calhoun, 
Eichard M. Johnson, had arisen, with their ardor for public 
distinction, to stir up the land by their glowing rhetoric, and to 
call around them the young and fiery sons of revolutionary 
sires for a second stroke at the hereditary foe of their indepen- 
dency and prosperity. Against these stirring spirits, of foreign 
and domestic constitution, it was futile to struggle, particularly 
when the old leaders — De Witt Clinton, Jefferson, Gallatin, 
Giles, Gerry, Macon, Findley, Sevier, Dr. Mitchell — manipula- 
ted the reins. Opposition came not so much from Federalists 
as such, as from Northern industry and commerce whose inte- 
rests were to suffer, and from New England people whose ter- 
ritory, lying adjacent to the British frontier, would be assailed 
by land as well as by sea. ' The South, being purely agricul- 
tural in character, and having little to fear from English navies 
or armies of invasion, could not be a sufferer except to the ex- 
tent of the slight additional taxation necessary to sustain the 
finances.^ Hence war to the two sections was so differently 

* Jefferson wrote at a later day (Nov. 28th, 1814) of the effect which a state of 
war had produced on Virginia prosperity: " To me this state of things brings a 
sacrifice of all tranquillity and comfort through the residue of life. For, although 
the debility of age disables me from the services and sufferings of the field, yet, by 
the total annihilation in value of the produce which was to give me subsistence and 
independence, I shall be like Tantalus, up to the shoulders in water yet dying of 
thirst. We can make, indeed, enough to eat, drink and clothe ourselves ; but no- 
thing for our salt, iron, groceries, and taxes, which must be paid in money. For, 
what can we raise for the market? Wheat? We can only give it to iu. "--i-des, 



OPPOSITION TO THE WAR. 845 

viewed as to awaken the keenest and most bitter antago- 
nisms. 

Said the Federalist members of Congress, in an address to 
their constituents, issued at the close of the session (July 6) : 
"If honor demands a war with England, what opiate lulls that 
honor to sleep over the wrongs done us by France — on land, 
lobberies, seizures, imprisonments ; at sea, pillage, sinkings, 
burnings ? With full knowledge of the wrongs inflicted by 
the French, ought the Government of this country to aid the 
French cause by engaging in war against the enemies of France ? 
It cannot be concealed that to engage in the present war against 
England is to place ourselves on the side of France, and ex- 
poses UB to the vassalage of the States serving under the French 
Emperor." 

And this, indeed, was one of the sharpest thorns in the side 
of men of the old Federal school — men who transferred their 
detestation of Eobespierre, Danton and Voltaire to the Empe- 
ror who had emerged from that sea of blood around the guil- 
lotine to become the conqueror of a world : they could not be- 
come reconciled to the idea that free America was to contribute 
to his ascendancy. The clergy of New England, in particular, 
gave utterance to sentiments not well calculated to reconcile 
those of Puritan blood to the war. 

But, these symptoms of opposition did not stay the prosecu- 
tion of the contest. With a few successes chiefly at sea, disas- 
ter visited our arms too humiliating to dwell upon, during the 
years 1812-13. Only the gleam of Perry's noble achievement 
and of Harrison's brilliant campaign in recovery of Detroit, 
came to permanently inspirit the people. In New England the 
war grew daily more unpopular. From its incipient stages 
such opposition had been manifested as gave the General Gov- 
ernment much anxiety. The quota (of the 100,000 men called 
for) to be furnished by the States of Massachusetts and Con- 
necticut, was not forthcoming — the refusal being justified by 
the asserted right of State Governments to determine when the - 

as we have been ever since harvest. Tobacco ? It is not worth the pipe it is 
smoked in. Some say whiskey, but all mankind must become drunkards to con- 
Bume it. But, although we feel we shall not flinch." 

48 



346 THE NEW ENGLAND DISCONTENTS. 

exigencies of tlie General Govcnunent gave the President au- 
thority to call out the militia. The Governors also took um- 
brage at tlie attempt to exclude their militia field officers from 
all command by orders for all militia to be mustered into the 
United States' service, when they would be commanded by the 
Major-Generals and Brigadiers of Madison's own creation. It 
was pronounced, by the Governors, unconstitutional for the 
President to delegate such authority over their militia. Both 
of these assumptions were defended by decisions of the Su- 
preme Court of Massachusetts. As a consequence the New 
England States were left in a perfectly defenseless condition, 
save only as far as the local forces and the organized State mi - 
litia gave protection. 

I At the opening of the war our Government had signified its 
wish to negotiate for peace, and had instructed Eussell, charge 
d'affaires at Paris, to agree to an armistice as preliminary to 
an arrangement, on condition of a repeal of the Orders in Coun- 
cil, the discontinuance of impressments and the return of those 
impressed. Through one of the by-roads of diplomacy — illus- 
trating the devious ways of diplomats — the offensive Orders in 
Council were discovered to have been repealed since June 23d ! 
There stood nothing, therefore, between our country and peace 
but the vexed question of impressments. The British Minis- 
try actually had sent directions, early in August, 1812, to Ad- 
miral Warren, to propose a discontinuance of hostilities on* the 
strength of the repeal of the offensive Orders. All of these 
things operated on the Massachusetts mind to heighten its 
feeling against- an Administration which refused to discontinue 
a war after such overtures had been given for peace. Julj' 15th 
the Legislature of that State agreed upon a "Remonstrance, in 
which they denounced the perseverance in war, after the repeal 
of the British orders, as improper and impolitic, from the dis- 
trust which it exhibited of the good faith of the English nation, 
giving color to the charge of co-operation with France, and 
thereby tending to arouse the whole British nation against us ; 
and unjust, because we had not taken, on our part, all the 
steps necessary to remove grounds of British, complaint as to 
tiie employment of her seamen in our ships, because the ques- 



MASSACHUSETTS REMONSTRANCE. 34:7 

tion of impressment had. never been presented to Great Britain 
as one of peace and war, between which she might choose, and 
because, for aught that appeared, it was still possible to settle 
that question by negotiation. 

"It was the hope of protection to commerce which had in- 
duced the Northern people, who did not need the aid of the 
South for their defense, to surrender to the General Govern- 
ment so large a share of their sovereignty, and in agreeing to 
the slave representation, to yield to the South a political weight 
so UDdue. But, so far from protection, a bitter spirit of hos- 
tility to commerce had early evinced itself on the part of the 
central authority, ending, after a long course of harrassments, 
in its total destruction by war ; a war which appeared to be 
prompted rather by a subserviency to France most dangerous 
to our liberties, and by a lust of conquest, than by any dispo- 
sition to defend endangered rights : ill conducted, excessively 
expensive, and which, in risking our future enjoyment of the 
fisheries, the great nursery of our seamen, and means of sup- 
port to thousands of our inhabitants, of vastly more value than 
any Canadian territory we might be able to conquer, put us in 
jeopardy of losing what New England never could consent to 
abandon. 

" Under such circumstances silence toward the Government 
would be treachery to the people. In making this solemn rep- 
resentation of our sufferings and our dangers, we have been 
influenced only by the duty which we owe to our constituents 
and our country, to our consciences and the memory of our 
fathers. And to the Searcher of all hearts we appeal for the 
purity of our motives and the sincerity of our declarations ! " 

This was accompanied by a report from a committee, which 
complained of the admission of Louisiana without the unani- 
mous consent of the States, as unconstitutional and unauthor- 
ized ; and the admission was stigmatised, Hildreth says, as the 
"commencement of a process of Western annexation which 
threatened to swamp the political influence of Massachusetts 
and the Eastern States, and which could not be suffered to 
pass in silence, lest silence might seem to give consent." 

Herein the reader has the real secret of the opposition which 



348 THE NEW ENGLAND DISCONTENTS. 

culminated in the Hartford Convention. The Embargo and 
Non-intercourse acts, and war with England to aid France, 
were excessively unpopular from pecuniary results ; but, in 
the demanded and conceded ascendancy of the South, in the 
reign of Virginia at the Capital ; in the offensive inequality of 
a Congressional representation on slaves ; in the apparent wil- 
lingness of the pastoral South to sacrifice and override the 
manufacturing and trading North, we have the true source of 
that uprising of the old Puritan element which convened in 
secret conclave at Hartford A, The spirit of Cotton Mather be- 
came even more apparent in the Senate resolutions, introduced 
by a committee of which Josiah Quincy was chairman, refusing 
to Captain Lawrence, afterwards of the ill-fated Chesapeake, a 
vote of thanks for his capture of the Peacoe\ believing — in the 
language of the resolution — " that in a war like the present, 
waged without justifiable cause, and prosecuted in a manner 
indicating that conquest and ambition were its real motives, it 
was not becoming a moral and religious people to express any 
approbation of military or naval exploits not directly connect- 
ed with the defense of our seacoast and soil." This outraged 
even New England bosoms, which ever had honored heroism 
and devotion to country. A worthy scion of the wealthy 
Crowningshield family, procuring a flag of truce, proceeded to 
Halifax and returned with the body of Lawrence, which was 
buried in Salem with imposing pomp — Judge Story (afterwards 
Chief Justice) acting as orator. 

The Legislatures of other States out of New England sus- 
tained the war by their votes and resolves if not by their men 
and funds. But, not an army put in the field was equal to the 
work assigned it ; not a campaign was prosecuted with means 
adapted to ends. Throughout the entire field of operations on 
the Northern frontier the country beheld, amid occasional bril- 
liant achievements, inefficiency of general commanders, impo- 
tency of the War Department and demoralization of the troops. 
It was distressingly evident that, however just the war might 
be, it was not popular, else volunteers would have flocked to 
their country's standard and the General Government would 
have been sustained with ample means. If it is asserted that 



ADVERSE P0SITI0:N" OF VERMONT. 349 

New England's disaffection and refusal to fill lier quotas for 
oflensive operations brought this weakness to the army — that 
her discredit of Government stocks and bonds was fatal to the 
financial success of the National exchequer — it is to confess 
the preponderating importance of that section : if its sympathy 
and co-operation were so necessary to the success of the war 
why, it pertinently may be asked, were not her wishes and her 
influence consulted in levying the Embargo and in declaring 
war? ^ 

During 1813 the Yermont Federalists so far gained in strength 
as to throw the election for Governor into the Legislature, 
which, being Federal, elected (Nov. 6th) Martin Chittenden to 
the Chief Magistracy of the State. He was no sooner in office 
than he issued a proclamation recalling from the United States' 
service a brigade of Vermont militia then thrown into Bur- 

* The first siieecli made by Daniel Webstei-, delivered ia the House of Represent- 
atives, January 14th, 1814, contained this passage : 

" It waS'not, Sir, the minority that brought on this war. Look to your records, 
fror'.i the date of the Embargo in 1807 to June, 1812. Every thing that men could 
do they did, to stay your course. When at last they could effect no more they 
urged you to delay your measures. They entreated you to give yet a little time 
for deliberation, and to wait for favorable events. As if inspired for the purpose 
of arresting your progress, they laid before you the consequences of your measures 
just as we have seen them since take place. They predicted to you their effects 
on public opinion. They told you, that, instead of healing, they would inflame 
political dissentions. They pointed out to you what would and what must happen 
on the frontier. That which since has happened there, is but their prediction 
turued into history. Vain is the hope, then, of escaping just retribution by imput- 
ing to the minority of the Government, or to the opposition among the people, the 
disasters of these times. * * If the purpose be by casting these implications 
upon those who are opposed to the policy of the Government, to check their free- 
dom of inquiry, discussion and debate, such purpose is also incapable of being ex- 
ecuted. That opposition is constitutional and legal. It is also conscientious. It 
rests in settled and sober conviction that such policy is destructive to the iuterestti 
of the people and dangerous to the being of the Government. The experience of 
every day confirms these sentiments. Meu who act from such motives are not to 
be discouraged by trifling obstacles nor awed by any dangers. They know the limit 
of constitutional oppodlion — up to that limit at their own discretion they toill walk, and tcalk 
fearlessly." 

This speech fell from the speaker's lips in an unimpassioned utterance, but its 
words were trip-hammer blows to the war policy. It was patriotic throughout, 
characterized, as all of Webster's speeches afterwards were, by thorough devotion 
to the nation; but it was a most powerful defense of New England policy. Web- 
ster tlien was a member from New Hampshire. 



850 THE NEW ENGLAND DISCONTENTS. 

lington to sustain Hampton's and Wilkinson's movement upon 
Montreal. This recall was based upon the "illegality" of the 
requisition for militia service— the Governor denying the ex- 
istence of any of the three contingencies provided for in tlie 
Constitution. : But the troops proved more patriotic than their 
Governor ; the officer bearing Chittenden's mandate was ar- 
rested by the brigade officers on charge of sedition. The expe- 
dition against Canada, however, having proved abortive through 
the incompetency of its directors, was abandoned, and the mi- 
litia were discharged— their terra of service having nearly ex- 
pired. I This act of the Vermont Governor aroused the autho- 
rities at Washington. It was moved in the House of Eepre- 
sontatives (Jan. 6th, 1814) to instruct the Attorn e}^- General to 
prosecute Chittenden.^ In answer to this Harrison Gray Otis, 
in the Massachusetts Senate, Jan. 14th, introduced a resolve, 
expressing the duty and readiness of the State " to aid with 
her whole power, the Governor of Yermont, and the people of 
that or any other State in support of constitutional rights, by 
whomsoever infringed"4— a resolution, which, though after- 
wards pointed at as revolutionary, but re-echoed the senti- 
ments which Daniel Webster uttered on that same day in tlie 
U. S. House of Eepresentatives. Those who most loudly de- 
nounced the resolutions as treasonable were the vehement sup- 
porters of the resolutions of "98 ! As the sole purpose and 
effect of those resolves were to exalt the State above the Na- 
tional Government it certainly was not becoming men of Jeff- 
erson's and Calhoun's principles to complain at the Massachu- 
setts enforcement of their doctrines. The}^ preached — Massa- 
chusetts practiced. 

The proceedings of Congress — which assembled Dec. 6th, 
1813 — were calculated to inflame anew the fires glowing on 
the Northern hills, or slumbering in their vallies. Madison, 
in a confidential message (Dec. 9th) adverted with some feeling 
and severity to the evasions of the Non-intercourse prohibitions, 
asserting that not only were the enemy's fleets supplied with 
provisions, but the importation of British goods continued 
through the process of smuggling and by the practice of ran- 
soming, by which collusive captures were made, and whole 



PEACE COMMISSIONERS APPOINTED. 351 

cargoes of foreign goods thrown upon our markets. To reme- 
dy these evasions he proposed that an " effectual embargo'' on 
exports be immediately enacted ; that all ransoms be prohibit- 
ed ; and that, to claim the rights of a neutral, the master, su- 
percai-go, and at least three-fourths of the crew be actual sub- 
jects of the alleged neutral power. To meet'these suggestions 
a bill was matured and forced through in secret session (Dec. 
19th) which, if it did not answer all the expectations of the 
President, produced still further exasperation of mind in New 
England. Even the fishing-smacks were put under heavy 
bonds, while a most arbitrary authority or discretion was given 
to Custom House officials, as well as to cruisers and privateers, 
to overhaul any vessel, and to seize, upon mere suspicion, any 
goods " apparently on their way (by land or water) toward the 
territory of a foreign nation, or to the vicinity thereof" The 
next edict, it was said, might be one to search private houses 
in order to discover if goods of British fabric were there in 

UoC. 

A gleam of peace came to relieve the public anxiety some- 
^vhat. 'lHussia had, upon three occasions, during the summer 
of 1813, oftered her services as mediator; but Great Britain 
had rejected the Czar's offices, thus adding to the war spirit 
against her. But/early in January, a vessel reached our shores 
bearing the important news of Napoleon's defeat at LeipsicJand 
of tlie advance of Wellington into France. Accompanying 
this news came offers from the British government to treat di- 
rectly with our Government, either in London or in Gotten- 
burg. This offer gave to the opponents of the war fresh cour- 
age. Madison gladly accepted the overture, and named (Jan. 
14th) as Commissioner John Quincy Adams, then Minister to 
Eussia, and James A. Baj'^ard, of Delaware, whose ca'sting vote, 
in the celebrated seven days' ballot, gave Jefferson the Presi- 
dency. To these were added, "as special representatives of 
the War party," Henry Clay and Jonathan Russell. Their 
instructions soon were perfected, and the two last named sailed 
,£i-om New York, Feb. 23d. Albert Gallatin, who was then 
abroad, also was added to the Commission. 

But, this gleam of peace did not stay the increase of the war ] 



'652 THE NEW ENGLAND DISCONTENTS. 

/faction. It grew steadily. As it grew, hatred of the New^ 
lEiiglanders increased. In view of Otis' resolves several State 
Legislatures gave utterance to their indignation at the attitude 
assumed by Massachusetts. Pennsylvania (Jan. 18th) express- 
ed astonishment at Crittenden's proclamation and Otis' resolu- 
tions, tendering, at the same time, aid to the General Govern- 
ment " to bring to justice all violators of the Constitution and 
the law, and all aiders and comforters of the enemy, whether 
directly or indirectly." New Jerseymen talked even more 
menacingly. The Legislature (Feb. 12th) expressed "their 
contempt and abhorrence of the roarings of an infuriated fac- 
tion, whether issuing from a legislative body, a maniac govern- 
or, or discontented and ambitious demagogues," declaring their 
readiness "to resist internal insurrection with the same readi- 
ness as the invasion of a cruel, vindictive and savage foe." 
Despite these sounding anathemas the New England men pur- 
sued their opposition unflinchingly. A large number of Brit- 
ish officers and privates having been committed to prison, by 
order of the President, in retaliation for the imprisonment of 
Americans, by the British Governor-General of Canada, several 
officers were consigned to the Worcester jail under an old act 
(1790) which placed the jails at the service of the United States. 
The Legislature promptly repealed the act (Feb. 7th, 1814) so 
far as related to prisoners of the United States' authorities other 
than of the judiciary, ordering all prisoners committed under 
the Executive authority of the United States to be dismissed 
within thirty days. This gave time for the General Govern- 
ment to remove its charges, though a general release on parole 
of prisoners soon followed. 

The press and the pulpit did not follow the public sentiment 
but led it, in many respects. In the Boston Gazette, and the 
Advertiser, as well as in a number of the interior newspapers, 
the extremists found "organs" noisy enough — all clamorous 
for a direct issue to be made with the General Government as 
well as for a separate peace with Great Britain. In the pulpit 
were found many men so strongly imbued with old Puritanic 
notions of the rights of conscience and liberty of action as to 
talk most rank treason — so rank that Jefferson, in his " Ana," 



CONSPIRACY OF THE BANKERS. 858 

rather roughly writes of the "pulpit-lyings and slanderings and 
maniacal ravings of their Gardiners, their Osgoods and their 
Parishes." This latter D. D., a minister of Byfield, made him- 
self especially cons]oicuous for his exhortations to arm against 
the Egyptian (the Administration). 

Nor, should the financiers be left unnoticed in this arraign- 
ment of sinners against the integrity of the Eepublic — for, of 
sinners, they were the most materially dangerous, having great- 
ly assisted in bringing the finances of the country to the verge 
of bankruptcy. They made a combined assault upon the pub- 
lic credit. Boston, as the grand entrepot of smugglers, was 
further rendered the centre of trade by British policy, which, 
until the Summer of 1814, left the New England coast free 
from blockade ! This exception doubtless was to encourage 
indirectl}^ the spirit of friendship which the opposition party 
were supposed to entertain for Great Britain, as well as to ob- 
tain supplies by the coasting trade, which freely bore flour and 
meat to Eastport and Halifax, until cut off by the severe act 
of Dec. 19th, 1813. The city was further enriched by the dis- 
position there of "ransomed" cargoes and prizes, by which 
great quantities of foreign goods found their way to an Ameri- 
can market. All these circumstances combined to render Bos- 
ton a port of supply for other cities. Soon New York, Phila- 
delphia, Baltimore and even Eichmond and Charleston became 
he.'ivy debtors, on the trade lists. Thus the tide of exchange 
sat Northward. Ere long the New England brokers, in spite 
of the general prostration of New England commerce, held the 
finances of the country in their control. The passage of the 
act of Dec. 19th, while it quite cut off the lucrative contraband 
t]*ade of Boston, found the Middle and Southern States greatly 
New England's debtor ; and the Yankee capitalists resolved 
to retaliate for the act by striking a blow at the finances. To 
this end they first sought to prevent the taking of the loan au- 
thorised March 14th, 1814; but, the banks of the 'Democratic' 
States, and the capitalists of their cities, in order to sustain the 
National credit subscribed to the twenty-five million loan to a 
considerable amount. Many men in New England and a few 
of the banks also contributed to it, and the loan bid fair to be 
44 



854 THE NEW ENGLAND DISCONTENTS. 

a success. Tlie Boston inns then decided to call in tlieii loans 
and credits and to send home for redemption all bills, accept- 
ances, &c., which they held of cities and individuals to the 
South. Thej acted in concert, first drawing on New York. 
That city, to meet the sudden demand, drew heavil}^ on Phila- 
delphia ; Philadelphia, in turn, upon Baltimore. Thus the 
chain ran through the country ; to the smallest merchant it 
was a demand at sight to pay up all dues. A panic followed 
which quickly deranged the credit and the confidence of the 
entire country. A steady current of specie slowly flowed 
North, to find its way into New England vaults, alreadj^ full. 
That such was their condition the statement of the previous 
January proved. The annual returns of the leading banks then 
stood : specie $4,945,444 ; notes in circulation $2,000,601— "a 
state of things,", said Matthew Carey, "probably unparalleled 
in the history of banking, from the days of the Lombards." 
This monetary crisis wrought the end designed. Banks and 
individuals subscribing to the loan could not comply with their 
engagements. Many, still able to carry out their voluntary 
obligations, refused to do so, not knowing what calamities the 
future held in store. A financial collapse was predicted and 
every body kept 'close in shore,' for fear of disaster. Banks 
throughout the Middle and Southern States were compelled to 
suspend specie payments, during the latter part of August, but 
not until Bosion coffers were full to repletion. Then followed 
a rapid depreciation of bank paper. The best New York notes 
were quoted at 20 per cent, Philadelphia, 24 per cent, and 
Baltimore at 30 per cent discount, by February, 1815 ; while 
U. S. Treasury six per cents stood at 40 per cent discount, 
and Treasury Notes at 24 per cent Minor banks quite gene- 
rally sank into bankruptcy. 

The result of all this was to bring the National finances into 
the perils of bankruptcy. In September the new Secretar}^ of 
the Treasury, Campbell — appointed in place of Gallatin, placed 
on the Peace Commission — made an exhibit which proved the 
impending disaster to be near if something was not done to 
recuperate the funds. The attempt to secure six millions of 
the authorised loan resulted in offers for only about one-half 



PLAN FOR A NATIONAL BANK. 855 

that sum at about 80 per cent. At this ruinous rate tlie Sec- 
retary was compelled to sell. To obtain $2,500,000, stocks 
were issued to the amount of $4,266,000. Eight millions of 
treasury notes were offered, one half of which would fall due 
during the next quarter. Other obligations rendered it neces- 
sary to secure twenty-five millions, yet, combiuing every re- 
source of the Treasurer, but nine millions were to be estimated 
as secure. The revenues already provided were greatly too 
small for the demands. New schemes of taxation were devised 
by Alexander Dallas, of Pennsylvania, who quickly took 
Campbell's place, to attempt what all despaired of accomplish- 
ing — the sustentation of the National credit. Notwithstanding 
his old anti-bank affinities, and the intense opposition of his 
"Democratic Societies" to Hamilton and his schemes of Na- 
tional finance, Dallas came forward with a plan for a National 
Bank, with a capital of fifty millions — five in specie and the 
rest in Government Stocks — thus to provide a circulating me- 
dium and to obtain an immediate use of loans. This proposi- 
tion — so utterly at variance with all ' Democratic' precedents — 
•possessed few virtues with many vices. It authorised Govern- 
ment to become a two- fifths' stockholder, in virtue of which it 
was to have the appointment of the President and one-third of 
the Directors — the Directory to be invested with power to sus- 
pend specie payment, and the bank to loan Government thirty 
millions of dollars. This "wild cat" enterprise greatly dis- 
pleased old Eepublicans and Federalists alike, but, the pressure 
of the war party and of the Administration prevailed, and, after 
considerable opposition, bills were introduced (Oct. 21st) to 
cover Dallas' suggestions. 

It is not to be inferred that the New England bankers 
brought all this train of monetary disaster. The great expan- 
sion of credit, consequent on a state of war and of commercial 
inactivity, must have produced a financial crisis sooner or later : 
the bankers of the North only hastened an inevitable result of 
carrying on a war on loans — Gallatin's idea. Gallatin, as the 
successor of Alexander Hamilton, was the embodiment of a 
' Democratic' financier ; and his failure, as well as the adoption, 
by Dallas, of the banking resource, did not fail to render the 



V 



856 THE NEW ENGLAND DISCONTENTS. 

contrast with Hamilton's management painful. The New Eng- 
land men, strong in resources, had they been so inclined, would 
have carried the loans along triumphantly ; but, they were not 
so inclined, and threw upon the Administration all responsi- 
bility of meeting the exigency which it had created. 
•^ An immense number of petitions for redress, protection, ac- 
tion against and defiance of the embargo had been sent into the 
Massachusetts Legislature from officers of sailing craft, from 
ship owners, from manufacturers, traders and citizens general- 
ly. All these were referred to a joint committee of the two 
houses, which reported, Feb. 16th, (1814). This document at 
some length reiterated, from former reports, the oppressive and 
destructive policy of the Government, but superadded views 
clearly looking either to a defiance of the Government or to a 
dissolution of the Union. ] Among other paragraphs it rang in 
the President's ears this chime to his Yirginia resolves : 

" A power to regulate commerce is abused when employed to destroy 
it, and a voluntary abuse of power sanctions the right of resistance as 
much as a direct and palj^able usurpation. The sovereignty reserved 
to the States was reserved to protect the citizens from acts of violence 
by the United States, as well as for purposes of domestic regulation. 
We spurn the idea that the free, sovereign and independent State of 
Massachusetts is reduced to a mere municipal corporation, without pow- 
er to protect its people, or to defend them from ojipression, from what- 
ever quarter it comes. Whenever the National compact is violated, and 
the citizens of this State oppressed by cruel and unauthorized enact- 
ments, this Legislature is bound to interpose its power and to wrest 
from the oppressor his victim. This is the spirit of our Union, and 
thus has it been explained by the very man who now sets at defiance 
all the principles of his early political life. The question, then, is not 
a question of power or right, but of time and expediency." 

The report did not suggest, however, the remedy of imme- 
diate application. It betrayed fears of that " leap in the dark" 
which it decreed was inevitable, was but a question of " time 
and expediency."/ Of the three measures of redress recom- 
/mended by the memorialists, viz : a remonstrance to Congress; 
f laws to punish unconstitutional searches and seizures, under 
V color of the embargo ; and the appointment of delegates to 
meet such as might be aj^pointed by the Legislatures of other 
States, " for the purpose of devising pro|)er measures to procure 



HOSTILE ATTITUDE O F M AS S A C H U S E T TS. 857 

the united efforts of the commercial States to obtain sncTiX 
amendments or explanations of the Constitution as will secure \ 
them from future evils'' — the Committee did not accept either. I 
Remonstrance had been tried with no result but to incur re- / 
proach ; the State courts, as then administered, would alFord 
sufficient protection against unconstitutional seizures of per- 
sons and property ; a convention would be a good thing, but, j 
as. the State had elected a new Legislature, the Committee pre-/ 
ferred to leave the matter in its hands, j And so the matter 
was left) much to the disgust of the extremists, for the new 
Legislature to grapple with. This body, "fresh from the peo- 
ple," met May 80th, to hear from Governor Strong a message 
similar to his former communications — advice to acquiesce in 
the state of things only so far as necessary to a bare fulfillment 
of Constitutional obligations. This speech the two houses en- 
dorsefl, in their replies, reminding the authorities at Washing- 
ton that they must not suppose, because the people of Massa- 
chusetts maintained their reputation for good order by submit- 
ting to the Constitutional right of Congress to declare war and 
to levy taxes to carry it on, that this submission resulted either 
from ignorance incapable of discerning, or from pusillanimity 
not ready to assert their essential rights, shoiild any such be at 
any time invaded. 

No action was taken on the joint report of the previous ses- 
sion in regard to a Convention of delegates to meet such as 
might be appointed by other Legislatures for holding an ante- 
mortem inquest over the Constitution. The reasons given for 
this delay to meet the "demands of the hour" were that Madi- 
son had proposed the repeal of the embargo — that Buonaparte 
had been forced to abdicate, and that a general peace must soon 
follow. ; Madison had given way before the frowns of the Fed^^ 
eralists : although but four months had passed since his confi- 
dential message had recommended and secured a searching 
amendment to the offending restrictive laws, he proposed 
(March 31st) not only the repeal of the Embargo but of the 
Non-importation act and the admission of imports of all kinds 
except enemy's property! Webster did not fail to handle 
these propositions with good natured severity, as a very late 



358 THE NEW ENGLAND DISCONTENTS. 

confession of the injustice of the acts, but more particularly as 
evidence that they were designed as measures to aid France 
— tliat, as the French Empire had had to succumb, to English 
arms the Embargo therefore was no longer of use ! Congress 
was not, however ready to take the responsibility of this repeal 
so long as the fate of negotiations then progressing in Holland 
were undecided, and the matter was passed over to the next 
session, when, Webster insinuated, the New England manu- 
facturers (which had suddenly sprung into existence during 
the operation of the restrictive non-importation system) would 
be sacrificed and the merchant and shipping interest already 
had been — so distrustful was he of the ammus of ' Democratic' 
legislation. 

But, the disaster and gloom of the Summer and Fall of 1814, 
drove States into the field for self- protection. Government 
was powerless to give the frontier and seaboard the least secu- 
rity. Governors and Legislatures had to take upon them'feelves 
the duties of defense. /''^ Not only had the first ideas of the war 
partisans been abandoned — the conquest of Canada — but, even 
the programme of a defensive war was committed, in a great 
measure, to the States ! Governor Strong, of Massachusetts, 
called ten thousand militia to the field, and the Legislature ap- 
propriated to the military chest one million of dollars. New 
York, Virginia and other States also called out their State 
forces, and contributed their funds. But, in New England the 
militia were denied to the General Government — the Govern- 
ors refused to permit any other command and jurisdiction than 
their own.^ This attitude was definitively taken in consequence 
of the refusal (Sept. 17th) by the Secretary of War (Munroe), 
to allow claims for the heavy expenses of defending New Eng- 
land already incurred by the Governors. /This repudiation was 
based upon the refusal of the Governors to respond to the War 
Department's orders for placing the militia under command of 
General Dearborne, in Massachusetts, and of Brigadier-General 
Gushing, in Connecticut, J Those of the latter State, put in the 
field in the Summer of 1814, did not reach the number of four 
thousand — the quota called for; and, because the Governor 
(Trumbull) placed a militia Major-General over the head of the 



DEPRESSING STATE OF AFFAIRS. 859 

Government Brigadier, Munroe refused all pay, sui^plies, &c., 
to those actually in service. 

This conflict of authority only strengthened the opposition 
element in the Legislatures. Once more the idea of a Conven- 
tion of New England States was revived. ' Washington City 
had been invaded, Aug. 24th, 2oth, and its chief public build- 
ings burned, with all their precious contents. British fleeH: 
were sweeping the coasts with almost unopposed fury. The 
Peace Commission, then assembled at Ghent, made no progres^s 
toward a settlement. ) England, having broken and banished 
Buonaparte, was free to throw all her tremendous armamen 
upon the country. Commercial and financial disaster starci 
the Union in the face like a grim spectre. / The ruin predicted 
by the New England opponents of the war policy had more 
than been realized— the results of what was considered a 
Southern rule were painfully visible in the still smoking em- 
bers of the National Capital. . Yet, the party in power propos- 
ed no modification of their system of "whipping" Great Britain 
into a peace. The inefficiency of the General Government 
com23ared with its demand for new sacrifices aroused the "blue 
light Federalists" ' to new zeal in compelling a total change of 
the Governmental policy, or in effecting a separate peace with 
England. 

We now reach the proceedings directly preliminary to tha 
Hartford Convention.] Harrison Gray Otis, as chairman of a 
joint committee of the Legislature, reported, Oct. 8th, that, in 
ihe position in which Massachusetts then stood, " no choice 
was left her between submission to the enemy, which was not 
to be thought of, and the appropriation to her own defense of 
those revenues derived from her people, but which the Gene- 

* The only National vessels of war fit for service were blockaded in various 
ports, by the vigilant enemy, and could not put to sea. Decatur's two frigates 
were fast in New London. Several times the gallant commander designed to put 
out duriug the night, or during a storm ; but, blue lights were burned on the hills 
on every attempt, and thus the enemy was placed on the alert. Decatur, in a 
letter to the Secretary of the Navy expressed great indignation at this treasonable 
interference with his plans. It is not, however, proven that the enemy actually 
were signalled by shore lights burned by the Connecticut men. The inference is a 
fair one that English spies and signal squads did the work. 



360 THE NEW ENGLAND DISCONTENTS. 

ral Government Lad hitherto thought proper to expend else- 
where." The report then recurred to the Convention of Dele- 
gates suggested by the Spring session. /The reasons for this 
Convention were thus given in abstract r'^ 

" The idea of a convention of the discontented States was also reviv- 
ed. The Constitution of the United States, under the administration of 
those now in power, had failed, so this report stated, to secure to Mas- 
sachusetts, and to New England generally, those equal rights and bene- 
fits, the great objects of its formation, and which could not be relin- 
quished without ruin. The method of procuring amendments, the 
probable necessity for which had been foreseen, provided for in the 
Constitution itself, was too slow of operation for the present crisis. The 
safety of the peoj^le — the supreme law — would well justify, in the 2)re:-ent 
emergency, the holding of a new convention to modify or amend it. 
Nor was the expectation presumptuous that a spirit of equity and jus- 
tice, enlightened by experience, would enable such a convention to re- 
concile conflicting interests, and, by obviating the principal cause of 
those dissensions, which unfitted the Government alike for a state of 
peace and of war, to give to the Union vigor and duration. 

" But as such a proposition, coming from a single State, might be 
disregarded, and as j^resent dangers admitted of no delay, the 
committee recommended, in the first instance, the inviting of ' a con- 
ference between those States, the affinity of whose interests is closest, 
and whose habits of intercourse, from local and other causes, 
are most frequent, to the end that, by a comparison of their sentiments 
and views, some mode of defense suited to the circumstances and exi- 
gencies of those States, and measures for accelerating the return of pub- 
lic prosperity, may be devised ; and also to enable the delegates from 
those States, should they deem it expedient, to lay the foundation of a 
radical reform in the National compact, by inviting to a future conven- 
tion a deputation from all the States in the Union.' 

" The amendment of the Constitution principally insisted upon was a 
new basis of representation. The present basis, counting three-fifths of 
tde slaves, had been adopted, it was said, under the idea that the shive 
States were more wealthy than the free States, "and ought, on that ac- 
count, to have a greater representation in projsortion to the number of 
citizens. This supposition of superior wealth was, however, a mistake 
in fact. Had representation been based either upon property, or num- 
ber of free inhabitants, or upon any uniform combination of both, this 
war, forced by the poor slaveholding agricultural States upon the rich, 
free, commercial States, would never have been declared." 

This report, in spite of a most strenuous opposition from 
the Democrats and a few Federalists, passed bj a vote of three 



HAETFORD CONVENTION PROPOSED. 361 

to onfi, and twelve delegates were named to the proposed Con- 
vention, embracing some of the most able men of the common- 
wealth — Otis, Nathan Dane, George Cabot, Joseph Lvnian, he- 
ing of the number. /^A circular letter followed, addressed to^ 
the Governors of all the other New England States, inviticg 
the appointment of delegates to meet in Convention "to delib- 
erate upon the dangers to which the Eastern section of the 
Union is exposed b}'- the course of the war, and which there i:- 
too much reason to believe will thicken around them in its 
progress, and to devise, if practicable, means of securit}^ and 
defense which may be consistent with the preservation of their 
resources from total ruin, and adapted to their local situation, 
and mutual relations and habits, and not repugnant to their 
obligations as members of the Union." The secondary objecr 
of the Convention was to "inquire wl tether the interests of the 
New England States did not demand persevering efforts to 
procure such amendments of the Federal Constitution as might 
secure them ' equal advantages ;' and if it should seem imprac- 
ticable to obtain such under the existing provisions for amend- 
ment, whether ' it might not be beneficial to endeavor to obtain 
a Convention from all the States of the Union, or of such as 
might approve the measure, with a view to obtain such amend- 
ments.' 'It cannot be necessary,' the circular added, 'to an- 
ticipate objections to this measure which may arise from jeal- 
ousy or fear. The Legislature is content, for its justification, to 
repose on the purity of its own motives, and upon the known 
attachment of its constituents to the National Union, and to 
the rights and independence of their country.' " 

"Upon the known attachment of its constituents to the Na- 
tional Union" really w^as Massachusetts' sentiment; but, in 
view of the feelings entertained by Otis and the Legislative 
majority, in view of their persistent refusal to acknowledge the 
supremacy of the National Executive, and in view of the prac- 
tical endorsement given to State Eights doctrines, the clause 
quoted sounded more as if put in to appease the little censor 
in theu' own hearts than because the Legislators entertained 
any real attachment for the Union as then constituted mid gov 

45 



862 THE NEW ENGLAND DISCONTENTS. 

erned. Thej were attached to the Union, but with a qualifica- 
tion which looked amazingly like disunion. 

This circular was referred to a special committee, which ac- 
companied its endorsement by a report drawn with great force 
and ability, in which were set forth the excuses for the Conven- 
tion, and intimated the sphere of its functions. | This document, 
thus doubly ladened with authority, was dispatched to the 
several North-eastern States. The Legislatures of Connecticut 
and Rhode Island acted at once — the first appointing seven 
delegates and naming the 15th day of December as the time 
and Hartford as the place of the session. ) These seven were 
among the best and most influential men of the State. Rhode 
Island, by a vote of two to one, appointed four delegates. 
Vermont and New Hampshire did not appoint — the Adminis- 
tration party being too strong in both States. Two delegates 
from the latter, and one from the former, were, however, infor- 
mally appointed by the people. 

There followed, from Boston to New Orleans, such an out- 
burst of patriotic indignation, particularly from Administration 
presses, as would lead to the conclusion that Washington's 
Farewell Address always had been a Gospel of Faith to them — 
as if the resolutions of '98 were not of ' Democratic' birth and 
the prime principles of the ' Democratic' creed ! Many good 
and ardent Federalists were loud in their expressions of dissat- 
isfaction at the course being pursued, although they — in com- 
mon with many others among leading Administration men — 
saw no serious public danger in the movement. Ex-President 
John Adams, and his Secretary of War (afterwards his Secre 
tary of Treasury), Samuel Dexter, were particularly distinguish- 
ed for their hostility to the Convention. Said Jefferson : 

" Some apiDreliended danger from the defection of Massachusetts. It 
is a disagreeable circumstance, but not a dangerous one. If they be- 
come neutral we are sufficient for our enemy, -n-ithout them, and in fact 
we get no aid from them now. If their Administration determines to 
join the enemy their force will be annihilated by equality of division 
among themselves. Their Federalists will then call in the English army, 
the Eepublicaus ours, and it will only be a transfer of the scene of war 
from Canada to Massachusetts ; and we can get ten men to go to Mas- 



OPENING OF THE CONVENTION. 863 

sacliusetts for one who -will go to Canada.* Every one must know, too, 
that we can, at any moment, make peace with England at the expense 
of the navigation and fisheries of Massachusetts." But, it will not come 
to this. Their own people will put down these factionists as soon aa 
they see the real object of their opposition; and of this Vermont, New 
Hampshire, and even Connecticut itself furnish proofs." 

Views wliicli events soon confirmed : " their own people" 
did put down the entire movement more completely than an 
army could have done. Madison did not entertain this happy 
opinion. Timid by nature, distrustful of the patriotism of the 
people, he apprehended the worst results from New England's 
procedure. Wirt has left us a distressing picture of Madison's 
mental condition at that time. He was tasting the fruits of 
the tree which he himself had planted : he was experiencing 
the practical application of his State supremacy faith. 

The Convention of twenty-six delegates — including two from 
New Hampshire and one from Vermont — assembled at Hartford 
at the appointed time (Dec. 15th). j It organized by the elec- 
tion of George Cabot, of Massachusetts, as President, and The- 
odore Dwight, of Connecticut, as Secretary. '' No excitement 
whatever, attended its proceedings. ] Madison had on the ground 
Major Jessup, nominally for recruiting, but really to watch the 
course of affairs, and, in event of an uprising to be ready, with 
the help of Governor Tompkins, the patriotic Executive of 
New York, to strike down insurrection at a blow. The young 
officer, both zealous and discreet, was not long in reaching the 
conclusion that the Convention was a harmless affair which 
would end in resolutions and remonstrances — not in revolu- 
tion. I So he advised the Government. The idea probably 

* The reader will please note the force of this positive statement as indicative 
of the feeling which prevailed in Virginia and the South, at that time, against New 
England. Purely sectional animosity was one of the most painful facts of those 
times. 

• This is a fair statement of the power wielded by " we," the ' Demecratic' 
States. K it was used to levy the embargo, to crush out New England prosperity, 
liad emergencies required, it certainly would have been used tn perrmnently cripple 
her navigation and fisheries. It was the very pmcer to do her injury of which New 
England chiefly complained. Jefferson, it will be seen, not only admitted that 
strength of '• we," the ascendant Virginia party, but did not hesitate to show how, 
by a disgraceful peace — by surrendering New England to British commercial su- 
premacy — " we" could have proceeded against the Northern States. 



364 THE NEW ENGLAND DISCONTENTS. 

struck him as ridiculous that twentj-six excellent men (twenty 
of whom were lawyers !) could or would effect the destruction 
of the Union/ 

The Convention sat with closed doors, for twenty days, ad- 
journing Jan. 5th, when the results became partially known in 
the publication of a report, directed to the Legislatures of the 
States represented. The entire proceedings were not, howev- 
er, divulged until five years had passed,)when the President 
of the Convention, to satisfy the public of its actual character, 
placed the Journal of Proceedings in the office of the Secre- 
tary of State of Massachusetts, for public inspection. From it 
we learn that a committee, appointed to consider " what sub- 
jects will be proper to be considered by the Convention," re- 
ported the topics proper for consideration as follows : 

" The powers claimed by the Executive of the United States to deter- 
mine, conclusively, in respect to calling out the militia of the States into 
the service of the United States ; and the dividing the United States 
into military districts, with an officer of the army in each thereof, with 
discretionary authority from the Executive of the United States to call 
for the militia to be under the command of such officer : the refusal of 
the Executive of the United States to supply or pay the militia of cer- 
tain States called out for their defense, on the grounds of their not hav- 
ing been called out under the authority of the United States, or not 
having been, by the Executive of the State, put under the command of 
the commander over the military district : the failure of the Government 
of the United States to supply and pay the militia of the States, by them 
admitted to have been in the United States service : the Report of the 
Secretary of War to Congress on filling the ranks of the army, togctlier 
with a bill or act on that subject : a bill before Congress, providing lor 
classifying and drafting the militia: the expenditure of the revenue of 

* And yet, a less number of men actually controlled tlie fortunes of the Secession 
Revolution of 1860-61 in its incipient stages. The difference between their work 
and that of the Hartford Conventionists consisted less in the principles evolved 
than in the character of the men : — the delegates of 1814 truly wished well for 
their country — the conspirators of 1860 were notoriously unscrupulous demagogues 
who, on the ruins of the Union, would erect a powerful Slave-republic which Slave 
owners alone should rule. There is, therefore, very little parallelism between the 
two parlies, save in their common reliance upon the JeflTerson and Madison resolu- 
tions of '98 and in their mutual dislike of the Union as it existed. The Hartford 
men w.ould have tinkered the Constitution and rejuvenated the Republic — the 
revolutionists of '60 spurned the Constitution and rejected the Union in any 
^ape. 



PROCEEDINGS OF THE CONVENTION. 865 

th.e nation in offensive operations on the neighboring provinces of the 
enemy : the failure of the Government of the United States to provide 
for the common defense; and the consequent obligations, necessity and 
burdens devolved op the sejjarate States to defend themselves — together 
with the mode and the ways and means in their power for accomplish- 
ing the object." 

This was considered in Committee of the Whole for several 
days, when (Dec. 20th) a second Committee was named to re- 
port "a general project of such measures" as it would be pro- 
per for the Convention to adopt. The report, as adopted (Dec. 
24:th), first declared it expedient to " prepare a general state- 
ment of the unconstitutional attempts of the Executive Gov- 
ernment of the United States to infringe on the rights of the 
individual States manifested in the letter of the Secretary of 
War," etc., ind to recommend to the Legislatures of the States 
the adoption of the most effectual and decisive measures to 
protect the militia and the States from the usurpations con- 
tained in these proceedings. Also to prepare a statement con- 
cerning the general subject of State defenses, and to recommend 
an earnest application to the National Government for an ar- 
rangement with the States by which they would be allowed to 
retain a portion of the taxes levied by Congress, to be devoted 
to the expenses of self-defense, and for the reimbursement of 
money already expended by them for such purpose. (Also to 
amend the Constitution, so as to accomplish the following re- 
sults : 1. The restriction of the power of Congress to declare 
and make war. 2. A restraint of the exercise of unlimited 
power by Congress to make new States and admit them into 
the Union. 3. A restraint of the powers of Congress in laying 
embargoes and restrictions on . commerce. 4. A stipulation 
that a President of the United States shall not be elected from 
the same State two consecutive terms ; and, 5. That the same 
person shall not be elected President a ^cond time. 6. That 
alterations be made concerning slave representation and taxa- 
tion. /This programme was considered with great deliberation 
— every member present participating in the discussion. It 
resulted in the adoption of the Report, with Eesolutions above 
referred to, directed to their several Legislatures. Its most sa 
lient points were as follows : 



366 THE NEW ENGL AND DISCONTENTS. 

"To prescribe p<atience and firmness to those who are already exhaust- 
ed by distress is sometimes to drive them to despair, and the progress 
toward reform by the reguLar road is irlvsome to tliose whose imagina- 
tions discern and whose feelings prompt to a shorter course. But when 
abuses, reduced to a system, and accumulated through a course of years 
have pervaded every department of government, and spread corruption 
through every region of the State ; when these are clothed with the 
forms of law, and enforced by an Executive whose will is their source, 
no summary means of relief can be applied without recourse to direct 
and open resistance. It is a truth not to be concealed that a time for a 
change is at hand. * * * A. reformation of ijublic opinion, resulting 
from dear bought exj^erience in the Southern Atlantic States at least, is 
not to be despaired of. They will have seen that the great and essen- 
tial interests of the people are common to the South and to the East. 
They will realize the fatal errors of a system which seeks revenge for 
commercial injuries in the sacrifice of commerce, and aggravates by 
needless wars the injuries it professes to redress. Indications of tliis 
desii'able revolution of opinion among our brethren in those States are 
already manifested. Finally, if the Union be destined to dissolution ))y 
reason of the multiplied abuses of bad administrations, it should be, if 
possible, the w^ork of peaceable times and deliberate consent. Some new 
form of confederacy should be substituted among those States which 
shall intend to maintain a Federal relation to each other. Events may 
prove that the causes of our calamities are deep and permanent. They 
may be found to proceed not merely from the blindness or prejudice, 
pride of opinion, violence of party spirit, or the confusion of the times ; 
but they may be traced to implacable combinations of individuals or of 
States to n'lonopolise power and office, and to trample without remorse 
upon the rights and interests of commercial sections of the Union. 
Whenever it shall appear that the causes are radical and permanent, a 
separation by equitable arrangement will be preferable to an alliance by 
constraint among nominal friends, but real enemies, inflamed by mutual 
hatred and jealousy, and inviting, by intestine divisions, contempt and 
aggressions from abroad — but a severance of the Union by one or more 
States against the will of the rest, and especially in time of war, can be 
justified only by absolute necessity." 

The Eeport then proceeded to consider the several subjects 
of complaint, chief of which was the authority over the militia 
claimed by the National Executive. It said : 

" In this whole series of devices and measures for raising men, this 
Convention discerns a total disregard for the Constitution, and a dispo- 
sition to violate its provisions, demanding from the individual States a 
firm and decided opposition. An iron despotism can impose no harder 
service upon the citizen than to force him from his home and his occa- 



NULLIFICATION. 367 

pation to wage offensive war undertaken to gratify the pride or passions 
of bis master. * * * Jq cases of deliberate, dangerous and palpal)le 
infractions of the Constitution, affecting the sovereignty of a State and 
the liberties of the people, it is not only the right, but the duty of such 
State to interpose its authority for the protection in the manner best 
calculated to secure that end. When emergencies occur which are 
either beyond the reach of the judicial tribunals, or too pressing to 
admit of the delay incident to their forms. States which have no 
common umpire must be their own judges and execute their own 
decisions." 

[We here have not only the legitimate logical consequent of 
■the Kentucky resolutions, but a repetition of Jefferson's very 
idea. He said: "As in other cases of compact between parties 
having no common judge, each party has an equal right to 
judge for itself, as well of infractions as of the mode and mea- 
sure of redress." Perhaps the special pleader may be able to 
discover that this assumption is not that of the Hartford Con- 
vention ; but, to the mass of readers, who take words in their 
accredited signification, the Hartford resolves will seem but 
Mr. Jefferson's reproduced. If any lingering doubt exists as 
to the extent of Mr. Jefferson's nullification sentiments, they 
will be dissipated by his eighth resolution, which expressly 
and directly declares that (the States themselves being sole 
judges) where Congress assumes powers not delegated by the 
people, "a nullification of the act is the right remedy ; and that 
every State has a natural right, in cases not within the compact, 
to nullify, of their own authority, all assumptions of power by 
others within their limits.''^ We are at a loss, in view of this 
express declaration, and that which immediately follows it in 
the same resolution, to discover upon what authority Mr. Ev- 
erett (see Address, of July 4th, 1861) denies the nullification 
sentiment as Mr. Jefferson's own. This we add, par parenthesis, 
in order that, in forming his judgment of the true character of 
the Hartford proceedings, the ' democratic' reader at least may 
place to the New Englanders' credit whatever they ma}' have 
appropriated from the ideas of the "father of Democrac3^''] 

The resolves accompanying this Report or Address we may 
give in abstract : 

The first recommended the Legislatures of the States represented to 



868 THE NEW ENGLAND D I SCON-TENTS. 

protect the citizens of the several States from the operation of acts pass- 
ed b}-^ Congress, subjecting them to forcible drafts, conscriptions or im- 
pressments, not authorized by tlie Constitution. 

The second recommended that the States be empowered to defend 
themselves, and that they have for their own use their proportion of the 
taxes collected. 

The third recommended each State to defend itself. 

The fourth recommended amendments to the Constitution, as follows: 
1 . A])portionmcnt of representation and taxation the basis of white pop- 
ulation. 2. New States to be admitted by a vote of two-thirds of both 
houses of Congress. 3. Congress shall have no power to lay an embar- 
go of more than sixty days' duration. 4. Congress shall not have pow- 
er to interdict foreign trade without a vote of two-thirds of both houses, 
5. Congress shall not make Avar by a less vote tlian two-thirds of both 
branches, unless in defense of territory actually invaded. 6. No natur- 
alized citized to be eligible to any civil office under the United States. 
7. No President to be elected twice or for two terms, nor to be chosen 
from the same State twice in succession. 

The report concluded with the recommendation that if the foregoing 
resolutions should be unsuccessful when submitted to the General Gov- 
ernment through the respective States, if peace should not be concluded, 
and the defense of the New England States be neglected, as it had been, 
it would be expedient for the Legislatures of the several States to ap- 
point delegates to another Convention to meet at Boston, in June fol- 
lowing, " with such powers and instructions as the exigency of a crisis 
so momentous may require." 

These resolves were designed for, and were sent forth to, the 
Legislatures of the several States ; but, like the Virginia and 
Kentucky resolves of '98, elicited no favorable response. Demo- 
cratic Pennsylvania heaped upon them strong expressions of 
contempt. The Convention's report the Legislatures of Massa- 
chusetts and Connecticut accepted, and appointed (June 19th) 
five Commissioners to Washington to lay their wishes before 
the National authorities — their instructions requiring them to 
request of the General Government compliance witli their wish- 
es in regard to taxes, &c. These agents, however, never made 
their demands — never presented their credentials at Washing- 
ton. News of the peace of Ghent, and of Jackson's victory at 
New Orleans sent such a thrill of joy through the public heart 
as rendered further proceedings on the part of the New Eng- 
lauders in very bad taste and dangerously inopportune and 



NEW ENGLAND SENTIMENT, 869 

t"he Commissioners wisely preferred not even to announce their 
mission. Those of them who had found their way to Wash- 
ington quietly returned. 

The great Hartford Convention Conspiracy thus dissolved. 
The country, which had frowned upon and feared it, now 
laughed at its failure ; its members were 'derided, or pointed at' 
in scorn, as something loathsome if not dangerous ; and three 
generations scarcely have sufl&ced to quiet the public mind in 
regard to its assumed treasonable character. So powerfully, 
indeed, did public sentiment set in against the convocation and 
its abettors that few were hardy enough to defend the course 
pursued. Even Webster, it is asserted, prosecuted Theodore 
Lyman (son of a member of the Convention) for asserting that 
he (W.) had some connection with the Convention ! But, de- 
spite this popular disfavor there still exists in New England a 
strong feeling of sympathy for the Convention, as a represent- 
ative of the opposition to Jefferson's "Chinese policy." ' Says 
a New England writer in a very lucid and able paper on Amer- 
ican Navigation : ^ 

"If, duriug tlie seven years of trial and suffering, from 1808 to 1815, 
in which nearly one-half of the wealth of New England was extinguish- 
ed, her citizens became indignant at the wanton sacrifice of their means 
and of the best opportunity Fortune ever gave them to gain riches by 
commerce — if the public sentiment found expression alike through the 
press, in town-meetings, in legislative halls, and even in the pulpit — if 
the capitalist lost confidence in a government which trifled with its own 
resources — if the merchant' refused all countenance to those who had 
wrought his ruin — let the blame fall on the originators of the evil. 
Lord North did but impose a few light taxes, place a few restrictions 
upon commerce, and make a few other inroads on freedom ; but he set a 
nation in flames. The Cabinets of 1807 and 1812 warred against com- 
merce itself, and placed an interdict on every harbor; and which of the 
measures of the British statesman Avas more arbitrary in its character, 
more repugnant to the spirit of freemen, or more questionable as to its 

* JeffeiBon, in his " Notes on Virginia," in 1785 had expressed his views on our 
maritime policy in the following terms : 

" You ask me what I think of the expediency of encouraging our States to be- 
come commercial. Were I to indulge my own theory, I wish them to practise 
neither commerce or navigation, but to stand with respect to Europe 
the footing of China." 

• See •' Atlantic Monthly" for June, 1S6I. 

46 



370 THE NEW ENGLAND DISCONTENTS. 

legality, tlitm the Enforcing Act of 1808 ? And if tlie men of New Eng- 
land, who had in their colonial weakness met both France and England 
by sea and laud without a fear, saw the fruits of their industry sacrificed 
and the bread taken from their children's mouths by the Chinese policy 
of a Southern cabinet, might they not well chafe under measures so o^)- 
pressive and so unnecessary that they were ingloriously abandoned ? " 

John Quincy Adams recurring to the proposed second con- 
vocation, to assemble at Boston in June, says : " it was turned 
over to the receptacle of things lost upon earth" — so utterly 
dead did the very idea of a second Convention become. Not 
that the treaty obtained of Great Britain, by our Commission- 
ers, really accomplished anything important ; but, it was 
peace, and her wand swept away the past as if it had been but 
a shadow. News of the arrangement reached New York, by 
a British sloop-of-war bearing two messengers with the treaty, 
as already ratified, by the British government. Without for a 
moment pausing to ask the terms and conditions of that treaty, 
the people gave way to expressions of unlimited joy. In every 
city bonfires, illuminations, bell-ringings, &c., followed upon 
the reception of the good tidings, flying by special expresses 
over the land. In Congress satisfaction was not less apparent. 
A zealous war partisan congratulated the House on the glori- 
ous termination of the most glorious war waged by any people, 
&c. But, the painful fact, when the treaty was published 
(after its ratification by Congress, Feb. I7th) became confessed 
that the war had ended just where it had begun — that we had 
" whipped" England into nothing, extorted no concessions, es- 
tablished no permanent principles of comity ! Says Hildreth : 
" The Federalists, and all the more sensible Republicans, con- 
sidered the country lucky in the peace, such as it was. The 
violent war men, greatly cooled by this time, concealed their 
mortification, like Troup, behind the smoke of Jackson's vic- 
tory, and vague declarations about the national rights vindi- 
cated, the national character exalted, and the military and na- 
val glory of the war. Considering the new demands of Great 
Britain put forward at Ghent, they seemed to esteem it a tri- 
umph to be allowed to stop where they began, leaving the 
whole question of impressments and neutral rights, the st^lo 
ostensible occasion of the war, without a word said upon the 



A COMPARISON-. S71 

subject, to be settled at some more convenient oppoi1;unitj ; a 
common termination of wars, even for the most powerful and 
belligerent nations, and of whicb Great Britain herself has given 
more than one instance." 

It is not to be inferred that the ISTew England States furnish- 
ed no troops for the war. The volunteer system found great 
numbers of recruits — how many will never be known, as thej 
were sent bj squads and companies to New York for muster 
in various regiments. During the eventful excitement of 1814, 
about 14,000 volunteers were secured at recruiting rendezvous, 
under the bounty enlistment a,ct ; and, of this number New 
England furnished more than all the Southern States put to- 
gether ! Massachusetts enlisted more than any single State in 
the Union, to the Grand Army, for that year.^ 

From what has been written the reader will have a clear 
comprehension of the causes of the Hartford Convention, if not 
of its actual aims. That these causes were potent enough to 
produce irritation of the body politic is not a matter of question ; 
and the assumption, by a certain class of writers, that it was a 
love of England, a desire for a state of colonial dependence 
which induced the hostility of the New Englanders to Madison 
and the war, is too transparently but an assumption to merit 
attention. By heaping derision, insult, libel and scorn upon the 
Federalists, as authors of the Convention and as enemies of tlie 
Government, their opponents gained in popular force so im- 
mensely as to render them doubly secure in power : not until 
the ' log cabin and hard cider' campaign of 1840 was the bond 
broken which gave the Democrats the Executive branches of 

* It lias so long been the habit of Southern partisans to libel Massachusetts tliat 
one can liardly express surprise at the statements put forth by Pollard, in his 
" First Year of the War" — (Secession Eevolution). He says : 

" In the war of 1812 the North furnished 58,552 soldiers ; the South 96,812— mak- 
ing a majority of 37,030 in favor of the South. Of the men furnished by the North, 
Massachusetts furnished 3,110; New Hampshire 897; Connecticut 387; Rhode 
Island 637; Vermont 181." 

It is possible that the South, including Pennsylvania and New York, furnished 
more troops than the North for the entire period of the war, for general operations; 
but, the figures above given of the numbers contributed by the New England States 
are absurdly at variance with the truth. When the facts are so easily accessible 
•we can hardly excuse such outrageous misstatements. 



872 THE NEW ENGLAND DISCONTENTS. 

tlic Government. Even then it was severed but briefly ; by 
the death of Harrison a Virginian became President and the 
South again resumed its scarcely broken sway. There was 
policy, therefore, in making the most of what, at the worst, 
was but an embodiment of the paramount policy of the South 
the right to discredit Congressional acts and to defy the Nation- 
al Executive ; the crime was, as we now see, not so much in 
the attitude of hostility assumed, as that Massachusetts should 
have assumed it. When the rebellious States of the South in 
1860-61 in their Conventions resolved, and in their wrath com- 
mitted, the treason of open rebellion, what a howl of defama- 
tion went Tip from their people and presses that their right to 
break np the Union should be questioned ! 

Time never fails to do justice. Had the nnllification atti- 
tude of South Carolina in 1831-32 never been assumed — had 
the revolution of 1860-61 never been inangurated — the Mas- 
sachusetts Federalists of 1814 would stand forth as bad sub- 
jects of a good government; but, with the great spots on the 
sun of our glory caused by the disintegrating resolutions of '98, 
and by their practical application in the pro -slave section, we 
are no longer at liberty to bestow the fullest measure of our 
wrath and scorn upon the little Hartford Convention. 



THE SLATE INSURRECTION OF 1822. 



Negro conspiracies and actual insurrections in the Unitea 
States have been more numerous than the Southern people 
care to acknowledge, but only those of Denmark Yesey and 
Nat Turner have won historical importance. It has been the 
policy of the slave-holding States not only to suppress, with a 
relentless hand, every appearance of disaffection among their 
slaves, but also to keep from the light all testimony regarding 
the occasional slave uprisings Which have not failed to occur. 
It is certain that eight, if not ten, very extended conspiracies 
have been formed among the negro bondsmen of the South ; 
it is known that four or five have resulted in open insurrec- 
tion which was suppressed only by the sacrifice of every negro 
implicated as a leader or abettor; but, of these exciting epi- 
sodes of Southern history, only the faintest records are in exist- 
ence, as if the slave masters themselves feared to read the story. 
Of the two terrible tragedies now associated with the names of 
Vesey and Turner suflicient authentic data exists to lay before 
the reader intelligible narratives of them, although, in their 
cases, the efforts afterwards made to suppress testimony, have 
cast doubts upon much that otherwise must have been admit- 
ted as evidence. The comparatively recent period of these 
events, however, has been used by a painstaking inquii-er to 
regather, from public and private sources, incidents and cir- 
cumstances enough to render the record historically accurate. 
This inquirer gave the results of his investigations in two arti- 
cles prepared for the Atlantic Monthly — June and August num- 
bers, 1861 — from which we draw much of the matter for this 
paper, as well as of that devoted to Nat Turner's Southampton 
insurrection. 



S7i in"surrectio:n' of den"mark vesey. 

E irly in June, 1822, Charleston, South Carolina, was deeply 
stirred with excitement. A painful fear of a negro uprising 
filled the hearts of all who were permitted to know of the mat- 
ter. Leading planters and citizens armed ; the authorities 
were on the alert ; the patrol was secretly strengthened and the 
negroes were watched with sleepless vigilance. All this ap- 
prehension, up to the middle of June, sprang from the most 
vague premises. William, a negro belonging to Mr. John Paul, 
had uttered mysterious hints to Devany, the slave of Colonel 
Prioleau, of an intended insurrection. This disclosure was 
confided to a free black, by whose advice Devany revealed to 
his owner what he had been told. That sufiiced to alarm the 
authorities. Forthwith the Mayor of Charleston summoned 
the Corporation (City Council), when both negroes, William 
and Devany, were submitted to a close examination. Nothing 
in addition transpired. William was successful in baffling all 
inquiries into his private aftairs, and was remanded to prison. 
He was not proof against confinement and, ere long, revealed 
the names of Mingo Harth and Peter Boyas, as his chief in- 
formants. These two slaves were, therefore, quietly arrested, 
but so innocent did they appear — so well did they disguise 
everything, that they were discharged. They must have prac- 
ticed extraordinary dissimulation, since they really were chiefs 
in the Conspiracy. William was pressed to make further de- 
velopments, and inculpated several other negroes ; but, these 
blacks, like Mingo and Peter, put on such an air of innocence 
as to confound their examiners. Enough, however, had trans- 
pired to place the authorities on the qui vive, and everj^thing 
was prepared for an outbreak. 

Had William been the only recusant the awful tragedy of a 
slave insurrection and massacre, fully matured and admirably 
ordered, would have followed ; but, another informer came 
forward, revealing the fact that on Sunday night, June 16th, 
the uprising was to take place. There were but two days grace, 
as the revelation was made on Friday, June l-lth ; but it was 
time enough to make ready all things. The city authorities, 
acting in concert with the Governor, Thomas Bennet, had their 
arrangements sq well perfected that, had the negroes appeared 



PEEYIOUS HISTORY OF VESET, 875 

to any number thej must have been overcome. This revela- 
tion, secretly made, was kept from all public announcement 
with the design of having the Conspirators divulge their entire 
scheme, and thus mark the leaders for punishment. But, the 
sagacious blacks soon discovered that their movement was be- 
trayed. They met Sunday night, at their several rendezvous, 
compared notes, and resolved to abandon the project for a more 
propitious moment. The secret of the insurrection was kept 
only until the first danger was past, when all Charleston was 
in a furore of excitement over its happy escape from the tei"- 
rors of a San Domingo butchery. The negroes became fright- 
ened, and, from some of the most timid of the guilty, enough 
evidence was obtained to identify ten of those implicated, who 
were at once arrested. An investigation followed, when the 
whole plot soon stood revealed. A free black' named Den- 
mark Vesey, working in the city as a carpenter, was indicated 
as the chief Conspirator, with Mingo and Peter, already refer- 
red to, as his principal coadjutors. Their rearrest of course im- 
mediately took place. 

Yesey was, in many respects, a remarkable character. When 
a lad of fourteen he had been stolen from Africa and borne, 
along with three hundred and ninety others, to Hayti for a 
market. His intelligence soon rendered him a pet, and he was 
taken by Captain Yesey — master of the slaver, and an old 
citizen of Charleston — into the cabin, where he was christened 
" Telemak," was clothed and so civilized that he was sold for 
a good price to a wealthy French resident of the island. Cap- 
tain Yesey ere long visited Hayti with another cargo of hu- 
man flesh and blood, when he learned that," Telemak" was 
-unsound, having had epileptic fits, and would therefore be re- 
turned upon his hands. ' The slave boy was, thereupon, trans- 
ferred to the ship again, to become the Captain's inseparable 
companion-servant For nearly twenty years he faithfully 

» Simms, in his History of South Carolina, describes Vesey as "a mulatto from 
the island of St. Domiugo"— au error. The Conspirator was a native born African 
taken by a slave trader from his native wilds to Hayti. as stated in our narrative. 
He did not participate in the St. Domingo insurrection— having left the island be- 
fore the revolution, or " insurrection," as it is popularly termed. 



876 INSURRECTION OF DENMARK VES^EY. 

served the sailor, visiting many lands, learning several lan- 
guages and never showing signs of epilepsy ! In the year 1800, 
having drawn a prize of fifteen hundred dollars in a lottery, he 
paid the Captain six hundred dollars of that prize to secure his 
own freedom — a transfer of property which the master con- 
sidered a generous act on his own part, since Telemak — or 
Denmark as he grew to be called — was worth more money. 
Thus free from a slave's bonds, the negro took up his perma 
nent abode in Charleston, where he became a house carpenter, 
practicing his trade with such success as to employ several 
"hands"' to execute his contracts. Of his life at Charleston we 
have only what is to be gleaned from the " ofl6.cial report" made, 
by the Mayor, of the insurrection and trial after the condemna- 
tion ofthe accused to the gallows. The document said: "Among 
those of his color he was looked up to with awe and respect. 
His temper was impetuous and domineering in the extreme, 
qualifying him for the despotic rule of which he was ambitious. 
All his passions were ungovernable and savage ; and to his 
numerous wives and children he displayed the haughty and 
capricious cruelty of an Eastern bashaw." All of which doubt- 
less was true. As his "numerous wives" were such by con- 
sent of their owners, and as his " numerous children" only ad- 
ded to the wealth of the State — all being slaves — the report 
does not urge his bigamy as an additional crime. We may 
further quote : " For several years before he disclosed his in- 
tentions to any one,' he appears to have been constantly and 
assiduously engaged in endeavoring to embitter the minds of 
the colored population against the white. He rendered him- 
self perfectly familiar with all those parts of the Scrip- 
tures which he thought he could pervert to his j^urpose; 
and would readily quote them, to prove that slavery was con- 
trary to the laws of God — that slaves were bound to attempt 
their emancipation, however shocking and bloody might be the 
consequences — and that such efforts would not only be pleas- 
ing to the Almighty, but were absolutely enjoined and their 
success predicted in the Scriptures. His favorite texts, when 
he addressed those of his own color, were Zechariah, xiv. 1-3, 
and Joshua, vi. 21 ; and in all his conversations he identified 



vesey's"woek." 377 

their situation witli tliat of the Israelites. The number of in- 
flammatory pamphlets on slavery brought into Charleston fi-om 
some of our sister States within the last four years, (and once 
from Sierra Leone,) and distributed amongst the colored popu- 
lation of the city, for which there was a great facility, in con- 
sequence of the unrestricted intercourse allowed ,to persons of 
color between the different States in the Union, and the speech- 
es in Congress of those opposed to the admission of Missouri 
into the Union, perhaps garbled and misrepresented, furnished 
him with ample means for inflaming the minds of the colored 
population of this State ; and by distorting certain parts of 
those speeches, or selecting from them particular passages, he 
persuaded but too many that Congress had actually declared 
them free, and that they were held in bondage contrary to the 
laws of the land. Even whilst walking through the streets in 
company with another, he was not idle ; for if his companion 
bowed to a white person, he would rebuke him, and observe 
that all men were born equal, and that he was surprised that 
any one would degrade himself by such conduct — that he would 
never cringe to the whites, nor ought any one who had the 
feelings of a man. When answered, 'We are slaves,' he would 
sarcastically and indignantly reply, ' You deserve to remain 
slaves'; and if he were further asked, 'What can we do?' he 
would remark, ' Go and buy a spelling-book and read the fable 
of Hercules and the Wagoner,' which he would then repeat, 
and apply it to their situation. He also sought every oppor- 
tunity of entering into conversation with white persons, when 
they could be overheard by negroes near by, especially in grog- 
shops — during which conversation he would artfully introduce 
aome bold remark on slavery ; and sometimes, when, from the 
character he was conversing with, he found he might be still 
bolder, he would go so far, that, had not his declarations in 
such situations been clearly proved, they would scarcely have 
been credited. He continued this course until some time after 
the commencement of the last Winter; by which time he had 
not only obtained incredible influence amongst persons of color, 
but many feared him more than their owners, and, one of them 
declared, even more than his God." 
47 



878 INSURRECTION OF DENMARK VESEY. 

This picture is clearly intensified in color for effect, but is 
true enough to prove the African to have been a man of pow- 
erful parts. His house became the resort of negroes in sympa- 
thy with him and " his work" He made converts as prelimi- 
nary to conquests. His influence extended beyond Charleston ; 
it went up the rivers, floated over the sea islands, penetrated 
to the interior ; everywhere he was known secretly to the ne- 
groes as "one with a work to do." Yet, it does not appear 
that he excited any particular notice from the planters, or the 
Charleston authorities — a singular fact if he did talk as freely 
and openly as stated in the report. He succeeded in calling 
to his aid as co-conspirators Peter Poyas and Gullah Jack. The 
first named was a daring, sagacious black, to whom Vesey ul- 
timately committed the details of the uprising — a trust executed 
with much military ability and decided intelligence. The other 
was a kind of necromancer or sorcerer, whose influence over 
the ignorant sons of toil grew to be quite unbounded. These 
three were the guiding spirits of that terrible plot, though 
three or four others were added whose services were specially 
required. Thus, Monday Cell became Secretary of the Con- 
spiracy, performing all the necessary writing. He even wrote 
a letter to President Boyer, of Hayti, informing him of the 
intended " stroke for liberty" and seeking for his co-operation. 
Tom Russell, William Garner, Mingo Harth, Polydore Faber, 
Bacchus Hammet, Lot Forrester, Ned and Rolla Bennett, all 
were chosen for particular duties, to which they were assigned, 
and of which they were rec^uired to give a good account on 
pain of untold penalties. 

The initiated embraced the most trusted of the slaves — those 
whose intelligence gave them unusual facilities for obtaining 
the confidence of masters. A monthly place of meeting was 
on a plantation, up one of the sea estuaries, called Bulkley's 
Farm, whose overseer was a black and one of those interested 
in the Conspiracy. " There," says the writer in the Atlantic, 
" they prepared cartridges and pikes, and had primitive ban- 
quets, which assumed a melodramatic character under the in- 
spiriting guidance of Jack. If a fowl was privately roasted, 
that mystic individual (Gullah Jack) muttered incantations 



DETAILS OF THE PLOT. 379 

over it, and then they all grasped at it, exclaiming, ' Thus we 
pull Buckra to pieces ! ' He gave them parched corn and 
ground-nuts to be eaten as internal safeguards on the day be- 
fore the outbreak, and a consecrated cuUah, or crab's claw, to 
be carried in the mouth by each, as an amulet. These rather 
questionable means secured him a power which was \erj un- 
questionable ; the witnesses examined in his presence all show- 
ed dread of his conjurations, and referred to him indirectly, 
with a kind of awe, as 'the little man who can't be shot' " 

The night of Sunday was chosen for the sacrifice because of 
the great numbers of blacks always gathered, on that dky, in 
Charleston, whither they all came "to church," from the 
surrounding plantations reached by water. The Ashley and 
Cooper rivers were fairly alive, on the Sabbath, with negro 
boats. This gave the conspirators the presence of the force 
required for thorough work without at all alarming the whites. 
The magazine writer added : 

" The details of the plan, however, were not rashly committed to the 
mass of the confederates ; they were known only to a few, and were 
finally to have been announced after the evening prayer-meetings on the 
appointed Sunday. But each leader had his own comi^any enlisted, and 
his own work marked out. When the clock struck twelve, all were to 
move. Peter Poyas was to lead a party ordered to assemble at South 
Bay, and to be joined by a force from James' Island; he was then to 
march up and seize the arsenal and guard-house opposite St. Michael's 
Church, and detach a sufficient number to cut off all white citizens who 
should appear at the alarm-posts. A second body of negroes, from 
the country and the Neck, headed by Ned Bennett, was to assemble 
on the Neck, and seize the arsenal there. A third was to meet at 
Governor Bennett's Mills, under command of Rolla, and, after putting 
the Governor and Intendant to death, to march through the city, or 
be ijosted at Cannon's Bridge, thus preventing the inhabitants of 
Cannousborough from entering the city. A fourth, partly from the 
country and partly from the neighboring localities in the city, was 
to rendezvous on Gladsden's Wharf and attack the upper guard- 
house. A fifth, composed of country and Neck negroes, was to as- 
seml)le at Bulkley's Farm, two miles and a half from the cit}', seize 
the upper powder-magazine and then march dovvn ; and a sixth was 
to assemble at Denmark Vesey's and obey his orders. A seventh 
detachment, under Gullah Jack, was to assemble in Boundary street, 
at the head of King street, to capture the arms of the Neck compa- 



380 INSUERECTION OF DENMARK VESEY. 

ay of militia, aud to take an additional supply from Mr. Duquercron's 
shop. The naval stores on Mey's Wharf were also to be attacked. 
Meanwhile a horse-company, consisting of many draymen, hostlers, 
and butcher-boys, was to meet at Lightwood's alley and then scour 
the streets to prevent the whites from assembling. Every white man 
coming out of his own door was to be killed, and, if necessary, the 
city was to be fired in several places — slow-match for this purpose 
having been purloined from the public arsenal and placed in acces- 
sible positions. 

" Beyond this, the plan of action was either unformed or undiscover- 
ed ; some slight reliance seems to have been placed on English aid — 
more on assistance from St. Domingo ; at any rate, all the ships in the 
harbor were to be seized, and in these, if the worst came to the worst, 
those most deeply inculjaated could set sail, bearing with them, perhaps, 
the spoils of shoj^s and of banks. It seems to be admitted by the official 
narrative, that they might have been able, at that season of the year, 
and with the aid of the fortifications on the Neck and around the har- 
bor, to retain possession of the city for some time." 

From this it will be seen how extensive were the arrange- 
ments for the bloody retribution. The CharlestOnians indeed 
escaped untold horrors when that Sunday night passed in 
peace. Not a white life was to be spared — all were to be sac- 
rificed. Even trusted servants, faithful slaves, class leaders 
and church members, were to kill their households — so terribly 
in earnest were the helots,' " One prisoner is reported in the 
evidence to have dropped hints in regard to the destiny of the 
women ; and there was a rumor in the newspapers of the time, 
that he, or some other of Governor Bennett's slaves, was to 
have taken the Governor's daughter, a young girl of sixteen, 
for his wife, in the event of success ; but this is all. On the 
other hand, Denmark Vesey was known to be for a war of im- 
mediate and total extermination ; and when some of the com- 
pany opposed killing ' the ministers and the women and chil- 
dren,' Vesey read from the Scriptures that all should be cut 
off, and said that ' it was for their safety not to leave one white 

> The official report mentions the case of one slave who had belonged to one 
master for sixteen years, sustaining a high character for fidelity and affection, 
who had twice travelled with him through the Northern States, resisting every so- 
licitation to escape, and who yet was very deeply concerned in the insurrection, 
though knowing it to involve the probable destruction of the whole family with 
whom he lived. 



ARRESTS AND EXAMINATIONS. 881 

skin alive, for this was tlie plan they pursued at St. Domingo.' 
And all this was not a mere dream of one lonely enthusiast, 
but a measure which had been maturing for four full years 
among several confederates, and had been under discussion 
for five months among multitudes of initiated ' candidates.' " 

It will be remarked as surprising that a plot, so extended in 
its memberships, should have existed so long without discove- 
ry. This profound reticence is, however, one of the negroes' 
most remarkable characteristics. However trivial he may be, 
with a secret involving his own destiny he is safe. " In one 
case it was proven that Yesey had forbidden his followers to 
trust a certain man, because he had once been seen intoxicated. 
In another case it was shown that a slave named George had 
made every effort to obtain their confidence, but was constant- 
ly excluded froKi their meetings as a talkative fellow who 
could not be trusted — a policy which his levity of manner, 
when examined in court, fully justified. They took no women 
into counsel — not from any distrust, apparently, but in order 
that their children might not be left uncared for, in case of de- 
feat and destruction. House-servants were rarely trusted, or 
only when they had been carefully sounded by the chief lead- 
ers. Peter Poyas, in commissioning an agent to enlist men, 
gave him excellent cautions : ' Don't mention it to those wait- 
ing men who receive presents of old coats, etc., from their 
masters, or they'll betray us ; I ivill speah to them.'' When he 
did speak, if he did not convince them, he at least frightened 
them ; but the chief reliance was on the slaves hired out and 
therefore more uncontrolled — and also upon the country ne- 
groes." How well their confidence was kept was made evi- 
dent in the statement that Peter Poyas had six hundred names 
on his company list, yet not one of them was arrested — not 
one betrayed his confederates ! Of all the real leaders only 
Monday Gell was weak enough to confess; yet, with all the 
art used to obtain information, with promises of forgiveness 
and of reward, with threats of condign punishment, it is stated 
that but fifteen of the Conspirators were ferreted out during 
twenty-one days of official examination. And, after every 
possible exertion but one hundred and twenty-one arrests 



382 INSUKRECTION OF DENMARK VESET. 

were made. Of this number twenty-five were discharged with- 
out trial, twenty-seven acquitted and thirty-four "transported." 
Thirty-five only were found guilt}^ — every one of whom were 
hung. The number actually enlisted is not known. One wit- 
ness gave it as nine thousand ; another as six thousand six 
hundred; but Governor Bennett placed those actually con- 
cerned at a very small estimate — a statement especially made 
with a view to allay public apprehension. It is certain that, 
from the little which was divulged, the Conspiracy was wide- 
spread and powerful in its incipient organizations, although 
the programme of operations as adopted stipulated a compara- 
tive restriction of " candidates," knowing, as one of the guilty 
confessed, that, with enough to commence their work with 
spirit the slaves generally would fall into the ranks — a state- 
ment startling even in its possibility of truth. If the slaves 
would so easily turn into insurgents what a volcano did South- 
ern society harbor in its very bosom ! 

Trial followed arrest. Yive freeholders constituted the jury- 
court, appointed by two Judges of the Supreme Court under 
provision of a Legislative act " for the better ordering and gov- 
erning of negroes and other slaves." What "other slaves" were 
indicated by the act is not stated. This court, presided over 
by the two justices, held its sessions of life or death in Charles- 
ton — the Mayor' being informant. The trials, judged by the 
signification of that word in common law, were the merest 
form. The slaves being " property" were looked after by their 
masters as any other property in danger of confiscation or loss, 
and were furnished such counsel as the case admitted ; while 
the negroes who testified did so without oath or voucher of 
truth. 

Some of the incidents of the trial were thus given in the 
oflBicial report already alluded to: "Eolla, wdien arraigned, af- 
fected not to understand the charge against him, and when it 
was at his request further explained to him, assumed, with 
wonderful adroitness, astonishment and surprise. He was re- 
markable, throughout his trial, for great presence and compos- 
ure of mind. When he was informed he was convicted, and 
was advised to prepare for death, though he had previously 



TRIAL OF THE LEADERS 383 

(but after liis trial) confessed his guilt, lie appeared perfectly 
confounded, but exhibited no signs of fear. In Ned's beha-^ 
vior there was nothing remarkable ; but his countenance was 
stern and immovable, even whilst he was receiving the sen- 
tence of death : from his looks it was impossible to discover or 
conjecture what were his feelings. Not so with Peter; for in 
his countenance were strongly marked disappointed ambition, 
revenge, indignation and an anxiety to know how far the dis- 
coveries had extended ; and the same emotions were exhibited 
in his conduct. He did not appear to fear personal conse- 
quences, for his whole behavior indicated the reverse ; but ex- 
hibited an evident anxiety for the success of their plan, in 
which his whole soul was embarked. His countenance and 
behavior v/ere the same when he received his sentence, and his 
only words were, on retiring, ' I suppose you'll let me see my 
wife and family before I die ? ' and that not in a supplicating 
tone. When he was asked, a day or two after, if it was possi- 
ble he could wish to see his master and family murdered, who 
had treated him so kindly, he only replied to the question 
by a smile. Monday's behavior was not peculiar. When he 
was before the court, his arms were folded; he heard the testi- 
mony given against him, and received his sentence with the 
utmost firmness and composure. But no description can ac- 
curately convey to others the impression which the trial, de- 
fense and appearance of Gullah Jack made on those who wit- 
nessed the workings of his cunning and rude address. When 
arrested and brought before the court, in company with ano- 
ther African named Jack, the property of the estate of Pritch- 
ard, he assumed so much ignorance, and looked and acted the 
fool so well, that some of the court could not believe that this 
was the necromancer who was sought after. This conduct he 
continued when on his trial, until he saw the witnesses and 
heard the testimony as it progressed against him, when, in an 
instant, his countenance was lighted up as if by lightning, and 
his wildness and vehemence of gesture, and the malignant 
glance with which he eyed the witnesses who appeared against 
him, all indicated the savage, who, indeed, had been caught, 
but not tamed. His courage, however, soon forsook him. 



884 INSUEEECTION OF DE^-MARK YESET. 

"When lie received sentence of death, he earnestly implored 
that a fortnight longer might be allowed him, and then a week 
longer, which he continued earnestly to solicit until he was 
taken from the court-room to his cell ; and when he was car- 
ried to execution, he gave up his spirit without firmness or 
composure." 

Of the demeanor of Denmark Vesey we have full particulars 
both in the ofiicial report and in the narrative of the presiding 
judge, Kennedy, afterwards given to the public. The prison- 
er, though greatly dejected at the total miscarriage of his plot, 
was not a person to betray fear. He was as calm, resolute and 
self possessed as a willing martyr, and managed his own case, 
we are told, with exceeding shrewdness. "With his arms 
tightly folded and his eyes fixed on the floor, he attentively 
followed every item of the testimony. He heard the witnesses 
examined by the court, and cross examined by his own coun- 
sel, and it is evident from the narrative of the presiding judge 
that he showed no small skill and policy in the searching cross 
examination which he then applied. The fears, the feelings, 
the consciences of those who had betrayed him, all were in 
turn appealed to ; but the facts were too overpowering, and it 
was too late to aid his comrades or himself Then turning to 
the court, he skilfully availed himself of the point which had 
so much impressed the community, the intrinsic improbability 
that a man in his position of freedom and prosperity should 
sacrifice everything to free other people. If they thought it so 
incredible, why not give him the benefit of the incredibility ? 
The act being, as they stated, one of infatuation, why convict 
him of it on the bare word of men who, by their own showing, 
had not only shared the infatuation, but proved traitors to it ? 
An ingenious defense — indeed, the only one which could by 
any possibility be suggested, anterior to the days of Choate and 
somnambulism ; but in vain. He was sentenced, and it was 
not, apparently, till the judge reproached him for the destruc- 
tion he had brought on his followers that he showed any sign 
of emotion. Then the tears came into his eyes. But he said 
not another word." 

It was reported, though not so stated in any official shape, 



SLAVES FOEBIDDEN- TO READ. 885 

that lie made threats, asserting that the insurrection would go 
on. It was true that, after his execution, a number of negroes 
were punished for wearing sack cloth. An ordinance of the 
cit}^ prescribed that any slave wearing a badge of mourning 
should be imprisoned and flogged ; under which peculiarly 
South Carolina ordinance every negro, caught with a semblance 
of mourning, was given the legal thirty-nine lashes on the bare 
back, and ten days in darkness on bread and water. 

Although the outward semblance of calm was preserved, 
the excitement in and around Charleston continued intense 
during all of July and August. Governor Bennett wrote a 
letter — already noticed — which was issued as a circular, with 
the object of allaying public fears and personal excitement. 
His very words were evidence of the general alarm whose ex- 
istence it was vain to deny. The constant presence of strong 
bodies of armed men throughout all parts of the city ; the re- 
enforcements of United States troops thrown into Fort Moul- 
trie ; the midnight removal of the arsenal arms to Castle 
Pinckney ; the minute search for secreted weapons ; the deser- 
tion, by their owners and families, of the plantations — all were 
painful indications of the fears which rested upon that com- 
munity. It was then that some of the South Carolina people 
themselves dared to lift up their voices against the presence of 
negroes. During the Fall of 1822 an able pamphlet appeai-ed, 
directed against the aggregation of slaves, and which urged 
the introduction of free white labor. This was written by a pro- 
minent citizen of the State, but it excited no favorable response. 

Upon one thing the public was agreed, namely : the danger 
of permitting the negroes to learn how to read. To that privi- 
lege was traced the insurrection. Says the Atlantic writer : 

" The editor of the first official report racked his brains to discover 
the special causes of the revolt, and never trusted himself to allude to 
the general one. The negroes rebelled because they -were deluded by- 
Congressional eloquence, or because they were excited by a church 
Bquabble, or because they had been spoilt by mistaken indulgences, 
such as being allowed to learn to read, ' a misguided benevolence,' as 
he pronounces it. So the Baptist Convention seems to have thought it 
was because they were not Baptists, and an Episcopal pamphleteer be- 
cause they were not Episcopalians." 



386 INSURRECTION OF DENMARK VESET. 

But, such weakness were only worthy of the bigotry or stu- 
pidity of Southern churches ; that never for a moment the 
presence of so many negroes in South Carolina, and the bond- 
men's chains riveted upon them as upon, beasts, were indicated 
as the true source of the danger, is not to the credit of South 
Carohna intelligence and her Christian honesty. 

The trial, as stated, resulted in the condemnation of thirty- 
five to execution. The sentences were made by Justice Ken- 
nedy, after the freeholders had rendered their verdict. Six 
were hanged July 2d — the day, it was afterwards discovered, 
upon which a second attempt was to have been made to start 
the general movement of insurrection. These six were Den- 
mark Vesey, Peter Poyas, Ned, Rolla and Batteau — the three 
latter slaves of the Governor.' Gullah Jack and John were 
given to the gallows July 12th. Twenty-two were hung July 
26th, and four July 80th. Willie.m Garner, having escaped, 
was recaptured and executed August 9th. These executions 
transpired at different places amid much pomp of military dis- 
play, and in the presence of vast numbers of slaves, who were 
made to witness the end of the Conspirators as a warning of 
the fate awaiting all who should dare to incite rebellion against 
their helot's estate. Thirty-four sentenced to transportation 
were sent, singly, to the rice swamps of lower Georgia and 
Alabama, 

The bearing of the men on the gallows was very resolute. 
To the last they resisted all importunities to confess. " Do not 
open your lips," said Peter to his companions : " die silent as 
you shall see me do," and all obeyed. Two slaves among the 
condemned, belonging to one Ferguson, were severelj^ flogged 
prior to execution, in order to compel them to divulge, but to 
no purpose : they were silent as men already dead. Vesey's 
bearing was particularly commanding. He went to the grave 
as one conscious of a noble sacrifice. 

Thus ended the Insurrection in South Carolina. Its prom]3t 

* The Governor had, at the trial, urged the niltigacion of the sentence against 
Batteau — a very valuable slave, saying: " I ask this, gentlemen, as an individual 
incurring a severe and distressing loss." The accused represented just so much 
mofley — lienoe the " distressing" character of the "loss." 



AN INHUMAN EDICT. 887 

suppression saved the State untold misery — perhaps saved the 
adjoining States from incendiary fires, for, once lit, they must 
have swept over many a league of Southern soil. Legislation 
against privileges to the blacks, excited by the experiences of 
the day, followed. Among other acts the South Carolina Leg- 
islature, in December (1822) passed one to imprison all colored 
men (free) coming from other States — by which outrageously 
unconstitutional statute numbers of colored men, some of them 
actual citizens of the Free States, were seized from vessels in 
South Carolina ports, imprisoned, and finally sold into slavery 
to pay the costs of imprisonment ! [A more inhuman act, or 
one more at variance with the personal liberty guaranteed by 
the Constitution, has not disgraced any statute book.' That 
law remained upon the records unrepealed, up to the secession 
of the State in 1860 — a standing insult to the States and a de- 
fiance of the Constitution ; and yet, among other causes stated 
by the secession Convention in the list of grievances put upon 
that autocratical Commonwealth was the violation of the Con- 
stitution by the North, in not returning fugitive slaves ! Pre- 
sumption and stultification of moral perceptions could hardly 
go farther.] The slaves also were debarred the rights of edu- 
cation. It soon became a state's prison offense to teach a black 
man how to read. The usual Sunday meetings were forbidden 
except under the surveillance of the whites ; the gathering of 
slaves in Charleston, from the surrounding plantations, was 
prohibited ; police regulations on the plantations became very 
rigid, and cruelty soon took the place of severity in discipline. 
In this respect the insurrection worked much wretchedness for 
the slaves ; it riveted their chains more firmly, it curtailed 

* Massachusetts sent Mr. Hoar, au eminent lawyer, to Charleston, to procure 
the release of several colored men, citizens of that State, imprisoned under this 
odious ordinance. Mr. Hoar, accompanied by his daughter, proceeded upon his 
mission but was compelled to retire in haste from Charleston under threats of per- 
sonal violence. No white man from a Northern State was permitted to enter 
South Carolina's jurisdiction, if he proposed to question the validity of her acts. 
That State, from the year under notice, was, practically, in rebellion, and our 
Government, administered by pro-slave Presidents, was pusillanimous enough to 
permit her outrages without the slightest effort to correct them ! The day of reck- 
oning came at last, however. Quern Dem vultperdere, prim demmtat. 



888 INSURRECTION OF DENMARK VESEY. 

their privileges, it made tliem distrusted, it brought out the 
scourge upon the smallest provocation, it gave their masters 
an excuse for denying them many of the rights of civilization. 
The world would shudder in horror to be told of the cruelty 
practiced upon the slaves to inspire them with a wholesome 
awe of the white man's power. Not in South Carolina alone, 
but in every Slave State the reins tightened, and the land be- 
came a land of wo to the wretched black. It is not strange 
that the great majority of the dominant race should have be- 
come, in a greater or less degree, brutalized by the exercise of 
this power over a subject race ; it were impossible for it to 
have been otherwise, cohstituted as human nature is, and or- 
dered as Southern society was. In that respect, at least, the 
spirits of Denmark Yesey and Peter Poyas had their revenge. 



THE CREEK DIFFICULTIES. 



The immense tracts of lands held in Georgia, Alabama, Flo- 
rida and Mississippi by the Creeks, Choctaws, Chicksaw and 
Cherokee Indians, proved, for awhile, a source of much anxie- 
ty to Government. " Eeservations" guaranteed by solemn 
treaty to the Indians, in the various Southern and Western 
States, embraced immense bodies of choice land, up to a com- 
paratively recent period. Solemn treaties secured to the sav- 
ages (and promised protection from all infringements by the 
whites on their domains) territories as follows : — In Georgia, 
nine and a half millions of acres ; in Alabama, seven and a 
half millions ; in Mississippi, fifteen and three-quarter millions ; 
in the Territory of Florida, four millions ; in the Territory of 
Arkansas, fifteen and a half millions ; in the State of Missouri, 
two millions and three-quarters ; in .Indiana and Illinois, fif- 
teen millions, and in Michigan, east of the lake, seven mil- 
lions. 

The "march of civilization" soon compassed these reserva 
tions with white settlements, and, as a matter of course, trouble 
followed. Encroachments would be made by the whites, cov- 
etous of the land or of its game. Indians would murder the 
whites and give the State authorities and the General Govern- 
ment plenty to do to keep them in bounds. So great became 
anxiety in the Southern States named, to get rid of the 
aborigines, that their State Legislatures demanded of Govern- 
ment the entire removal of the red-men from their midst to 
unsettled Territories around the head waters of the Arkansas 
river. Georgia made her demand peremptorily, since she held 
the Federal Government bound by a compact to relieve her. 
This compact stipulated that, in consideration of Georgia relin« 



390 THE CREEK DIFFICULTIES. 

quishing her title and claims to the Mississippi Territory, the 
General Government would extinguish Indian titles to lands 
within her confines, "whenever it could be peaceably done on 
reasonable terms." After making that agreement Government 
succeeded in extinguishing the title to about fifteen million 
acres, and conveyed the same to the State of Georgia. There 
still remained 9,537,000 acres in possession of the Indians, of 
which 5,292,000 acres belonged to the Cherokees and the re- 
mainder to the Creek nation. Shortly before the termination 
of Mr. Monroe's administration, Georgia became very urgent 
for an entire removal of the Indians. 

Delegates from the Cherokees were in Washington during 
March, 1824, to arrange matters in dispute. Their pretensions 
to the rights of civilized usage as embassadors much excited 
the Georgia members in Congress, and they seized the occasion 
not only to enter their protest against the mission of the barba- 
rians, but to make a formal demand upon Government for it to 
fulfil its treaty obligations. The Georgians spoke peremptori- 
ly, and called forth from the President, James Monroe, and 
John C. Calhoun, Secretary of War, communications designed 
to set the matter before the public in its true light. Said Cal- 
houn: 

" In fulfilment of the stipulations of the 4th article (of the 
convention of 1802) with Georgia, there have been held seven 
treaties with the Creeks and Cherokees ; of which five were 
with the former — two previous to the war with Great Britain 
(1812) and three since. By the two first named there were 
ceded to Georgia 2,713,890 acres, and by the three last named 
11,735,590 acres— altogether 14,748,690 acres. With the Che- 
rokees there have been held two treaties — both since the late 
war — by which Georgia has acquired 995,810 acres, which, ad- 
ded to that acquired by treaties with the Creeks, make 15,744,- 
000 acres that have been ceded to Georgia, since the date of 
the convention, in fulfilment of its stipulations. 

"In acquiring these cessions for the State of Georgia, the 
United States have expended $958,954.90; to which should 
be added the value of 995,310 acres which were given in ex- 
change with tlie Cherokees on the Arkansas river, for a quan- 



"WHAT GEOEGIA HAS BEEN PAID. S91 

tity ceded by them to Georgia, by the treaties of 1817 and 
1819 — which lands estimated at the minimum price of the 
public lands would make $1,244,147.50. If to these we add 
the sum of $1,250,000 paid to Georgia under the convention, 
and $4,282,151.12^ paid to the Yazoo claimants, it will be 
found that the United States have already paid, under the coii 
vention, $7,735,243.52^ — which does not include any portion 
of the expenses of the Creek war, by which upwards of seven 
millions of acres were acquired to the State of Georgia." * 

But, despite this showing, Georgia was resolved to have all her 
" rights" under the convention of 1802 ; and, at the solicitation 
of her Governor, two Commissioners were appointed to make a 
treaty with the Creeks for the purchase of their lands. This 
treaty was negotiated on the 12th of Feb., 1825, the famous 
Chief, General William Mcintosh signing it in presence of Mr. 
Crowell, United States Indian Agent, by which all the Creek 
country and several millions of acres in Alabama were ceded 
to the United States. Complaints followed it to Washington 
as having been concluded by Mcintosh without any authority 
from the nation. The ratification of this treaty was opposed in 
Congress, but was finally carried by the strong vote of thirty- 
four to four. This sanction on reaching the ears of the discon- 
tented Creeks produced great excitement. A secret council 
of the nation being called, they resolved not to abide by the 
cession. The death of Mcintosh was determined on ; and, on 
the 30th of April, his house was surrounded by a party, who 
shot him together with another chief, and burned his premises. 
This aroused the State authorities to a determined course, and 
Georgia resolved to take possession of the lands by force. 
Troops were called out to sustain her claims. By this act the 
State opened a controversy with the General Government, 
which was bound by treaty and good faith to protect the Indians 
in their just rights. 

When John Quincy Adams came into power he made the 
subject a matter of early examination, and became convinced 
that the Indians were right — that tLie treaty, as they represent- 

• From these figures it will be perceived to what extent Georgia was indebted to 
the Federal Government. 



892 THE CREEK DIFFICULTIES. 

ed, had been made by Mcintosh without authority, and there- 
fore that the enforcement of its provisions ought not to be urged. 
As Georgia had called out troops to force the savages into an 
acceptance and fulfillment of the cession, it only remained for 
the President to order a Federal force to the confines of the 
reservation to protect the Indians. This step aroused not only 
Georgia, but also the adjoining States, who were prepared, with 
troops and money, to assist Georgia " against the Government 
and the Indians.!' 

To avoid the hazard of war, Mr. Adams succeeded in gath- 
ering at Washington, in January, 1826, the head men and re- 
sponsible representatives of the Creeks, and concluded a new 
treaty, which was substituted for the old one, whereby all their 
lands in Georgia were ceded, but none in Alabama. Notwith- 
standing opposition, from the Georgia delegation in Congress, 
this treaty was ratified by the Senate at the ensuing session by 
a vote of thirty to seven, and appropriations were made by the 
House of Eepresentatives by a vote of one hundred and sixty- 
seven to ten. The treaty was faithfully observed by the In- 
dians, and Georgia became possessed of their valuable land, 
after waiting a quarter of a century for Government to fulfill 
its agreement (made in 1802). At a later day the Cherokees' 
title was extinguished in Alabama, though their removal to 
the "West was not accomplished until General Scott took the 
matter in hand (in May, 1838). 



THE SOUTHAMPTON SLAYE INSURRECTIOK 



The insurrection in Southampton County, Virginia, in Au- 
gust, 1831, headed by Nat Turner, was not, like the South 
Carolina uprising, the result of a carefully elaborated plot. It 
was the result of one night's conference in the woods, of seven 
black men, who proceeded to the work of slaughter almost as 
soon as it was determined upon and its first steps arranged. In 
this respect it was calculated to inspire more apprehension 
among slave owners, since, if one bold spirit could, at any mo- 
ment, so inflame the savage instincts of the African as to impel 
him to murder, where was the safety in his presence ? Like 
Vesey's plot, however. Turner's bloody revolt was conceived 
in religious enthusiasm, and the black murderers became, in 
their frenzy, ministers of divine vengeance, slaying women and 
children even while tbey regretted its necessity. In this 
religious aspect both insurrections deserve more consideration 
than has been given them by writers and thinkers. It is a 
matter of surprise that, since religious impressions and a knowl- 
edge of the Bible proved so inflamatory, the Southern Legisla- 
tures did not forbid even the shadow of a missionary to darken 
their lands, and did not formally banish the Holy Word as a 
dangerous agent in a slave's hands. But, the surprise is les- 
sened when we reflect that, in Virginia as well as in South 
Carolina, it was a states' prison offense to learn slaves to read ; 
and the further fact that such "religious instruction" was pro- 
vided for the black as impressed him with proper ideas of his 
own unworthiness, renders it apparent that all steps practicallj 

49 



B94: INSURRECTION OF NAT TURNER. 

oecessary to keep the African a barbarian not only were taken 
but were enforced. 

Nat Turner, like Denmark Vesey, was a religions devotee 
who had "a work to do." "He had, by his own account," 
says the authority before us, "felt himself singled out from 
childhood for some great work ; and he had some peculiar 
marks on his person, which, joined to his great mental preco- 
city, were enough to occasion, among his youthful companions, 
a superstitious faith in his gifts and destiny. He had great 
mechanical ingenuity also, experimentalized very early in 
making paper, gunpowder, pottery, and in other arts, which, in 
later life, he was found thoroughly to understand. His moral 
faculties were very strong ; white witnesses admitted that he 
had never been known to swear an oath, to drink a drop of 
spirits, or to commit a theft ! And, in general, so marked were 
his early peculiarities, that people said ' he had too much sense 
to be raised, and if he was, he would never be of any use as a 
slave.' This impression of personal destiny grew with his 
growth — he fasted, prayed, preached, read the Bible, heard 
voices when he walked behind his j)lough, and communicated 
his revelations to the awe- struck slaves. They told him in re- 
turn, that, ' if they had his sense, they would not serve any 
master in the world.' "' 

It would appear, indeed, that the man was extraordinarily 
endowed with the religious " power" which makes men apostles 
and martyrs, or which, if allowed free scope, renders them great 
as expounders of the truth. Had Turner lived in a congenial 
atmosphere he must have become a veritable Martin Luther 
among his race. As it was he was only a slave — the property 
of a white man ; and while he faithfully performed the offices 
of a slave his soul held converse with such spirits as could 
penetrate the darkness of his benighted life. His " confession," 
made after arrest and sentence of death, is a remarkable evi- 
dence of the spiritual sympathy which swayed his entire being. 
Just prior to the year of the insurrection he had a special sea- 
son of religious experience, in which he spoke with such power 
as to make a convert of a white man named Brantly, whom he 
baptised by immersion. He said, referring to that event : " I 



turner's holy vision. 395 

told these things to a white man, on whom it had a wonderful 
effect, and he ceased from his wickedness, and was attacked 
immediately with a cutaneous eruption, and the blood oozed 
from the pores of his skin, and after praying and fasting nine 
days he was healed. And the Spirit appeared to me again, 
and said, as the Savior had been baptized, so should we be 
also ; and when the white people would not let us be baptized 
by the Church, we went down into the water together, in the 
sight of many who reviled us, and were baptized by the Spirit. 
After this I rejoiced greatly and gave thanks to God." 

This certainly does not savor of blood-thirstiness, yet the 
very enthusiasm here recorded impelled the devotee to his 
work of slaughter. As he neared the year of his tragedy 
Turner's fervor increased. He beheld in the sky black and 
white spirits contending, like the hosts of Gabriel and Satan, 
for supremacy ; at the awful conflict the scene became darken- 
ed, the heavens flashed fire and thunder filled the infinite 
spaces with dismal echoes. " And the Holy Ghost," he said, 
" was with me and said : * Behold me as I stand in the heavens !' 
And I looked and saw the forms of men in different attitudes. 
And there were lights in the sky, to which the children of 
darkness gave other names than what they really were ; for 
they were the lights of the Savior's hands, stretched forth from 
east to west, even as they were extended on the cross on Cal- 
vary, for the redemption of sinners." On the corn he saw 
drops of blood — Christ's blood, a witness of the work to be 
done ; on the leaves in the forest he discovered signs, symbols 
similar to those revealed to his vision in the skies. Finally 
the Holy Spirit appeared to him. May 12th, 1828, to announce 
that the mission of the Savior would fall upon him, and, when 
the sign appeared in the heavens, indicated by Eevelation, he 
must begin his struggle with the Serpent. That sign was given 
in an eclipse of the sun, in February, 1831. This call he must 
obey. He set about preparing himself to slay and destroy the 
white host until the land was regenerated. Then, also, the 
seal of secrecy was broken and he was permitted to call to his 
aid those who seemed marked as apostles in the crusade. This 



396 INSUHRECTIONOFXATTUKNER. 

was the incipience of that terrible " work" which startled the 
whole country with its human sacrifice. 

On Sunday, August 21st, 1831, six slaves met in the wooda 
of the plantation of Joseph Travis, ostensibly for a barbecue. 
The plantation was located in Southampton County, Virginia, 
in the neighborhood known as Cross Keys, fifteen miles from 
Jerusalem C. H. and as far from Petersburg. These six men 
awaited the coming of a seventh, who made his appearance 
during the afternoon, when the roast pig was ready. His de- 
meanor, and the deference shown to him, indicated him as the 
man to lead. He was a dark mulatto, in the very prime of 
life, powerfully built in frame, with strongly marked African 
features, and a face indicative of intelligence and resolution. 
It was Nat Turner. Observing two negroes more than he had 
ordered to the tryst, he demanded to know why they \^^ere 
there? One of them, named Will, answered with a quick re- 
sponse, that his life was worth no more than that of others, 
and that his liberty was as dear to him. Hark, one of the 
chosen four, answered for the other negro, named Jack, and the 
conference proceeded with much solemnity, as the roast pig 
was eaten. Turner harangued the men in his earnest, moving 
rhetoric, depicting the wretchedness of the negroes' lot, and 
proving by Scripture that he was called to disenthrall. All 
conceded the truth of his assumption and declared themselves 
ready for the work. For many hours the conference continued, 
and the Conspirators discussed the details of their movements. 
"One can imagine," says the writer in the Atlantic MonVihj, 
" those terrible dusky faces, beneath the funereal woods, and 
amid the flickering of pine knot torches, preparing that stern 
revenge whose shuddering echoes should ring through the land 
so long." Night was well advanced when at length the last 
words were spoken, and the seven proceeded on their mission 
of murder. "It was agreed," said Turner in his confession, 
" that we should commence at home on that night, and, until 
we had armed and equipped ourselves and gained sufficient 
force, neither age nor sex was to be spared : which was invari- 
ably adhered to." The general design was to "conquer South- 
ampton County, as the white men did in the Eevolution, and 



THE MASSACRE OF WHITES. S99 

then retreat, if necessary, to the Dismal Swamp," wliichi was 
about twenty-five miles away, and in whose fastnesses the 
blacks supposed they could find security. They counted, how- 
ever, upon success, by the flocking of slaves to their stand- 
ard. Turner also had vague ideas of a Black Eepublic to be 
formed in that vicinity, where the negroes would dwell in 
peace, and whose country should become the refuge of all 
runaway slaves. It was a wild, inconsiderate, illy-defined plan, 
showing but little of judgment or just apprehension of results. 
Surrounded upon all sides by considerable towns, whose in- 
habitants would turn out to a man to meet the insurrectionists 
— with Fortress Monroe at calling distance, ready with men 
and artillery to sweep away whole ranks of half armed and not 
half led slaves — what hope of success could any sane mind 
have entertained ? Turner was a religious fanatic — he was 
not sane ; his plans were those of a dreamer, and, like all cre- 
ations of frenzy and ignorance, ended in the overwhelming ruin 
of all concerned. 

Says the writer already referred to, regarding that night's 
■work : " Swift and stealthy as Indians, the black men passed 
from house to house — not pausing, not hesitating, as their ter- 
riiyie work went on. In one thing they were humaner than 
Intlians or than white men fighting against Indians — there was 
no gratuitous outrage beyond the death-blow itself, no insult, 
no mutilation ; but in every house they entered, that blow fell 
on man, woman and child — nothing that had a white skin was 
spared. From every house they took arms and ammunition, 
and from a few, money ; on every plantation they found re- 
cruits : those dusky slaves, so obsequious to their master the 
day before, so prompt to sing and dance before his Northern 
visitors, were all swift to transform themselves into fiends of 
retribution now ; show them sword or musket and they grasp- 
ed it, though it were an heirloom from Washington himself 
The troop increased from house to house — first to fifteen, then 
to forty, then to sixty. Some were armed with muskets, some 
with axes, some with scythes; some came on their masters' 
horses. As the number increased they could be divided, and 
the awful work was carried on more rapidly still. The plan 



400 INSUEEECTION OF NAT TUENEK. 

tten was for an advanced guard of horsemen to approacli each 
house at a gallop, and surround it till the others came up. 
Meanwhile what agonies of terror must have taken place with- 
in, shared alike by innocent and by guilty ! what memories of 
wrongs inflicted on those dusky creatures by some — what in- 
nocent participation by others, in the penance ! The outbreak 
lasted for but forty-eight hours ; but during that period fifty- 
five whites were slain, without the loss of a single slave." 

It was truly a reign of terror, before which the whites fled 
in uncontrollable dismay, abandoning homes and property in 
the one desire to shut out from their eyes the very sight of 
the vengeful blacks. Seeing this comparatively slow progress 
of his butchery, and realizing that the alarm must, ere long, 
bring the whites from other districts upon him. Turner resolv- 
ed to strike out for Jerusalem, the county town, where he 
should be able to intercept fugitives and cut off communica- 
tion with Norfolk and Fortress Monroe. With a strong body 
of mounted men he hurried on imtil within three miles of the 
Court House, when, passing the plantation of a Mr. Parker, the 
men desired to stop to enlist his negroes and to murder the 
whites. Turner remonstrated against this delay, but, upon the 
promise of expedition, he halted his troop and permitted about 
half of them to go up the lane to the house, one-half mile away. 
The halt, as Turner had feared, proved disastrous. Those 
dispatched to the mansion were gone so long that Turner at 
length followed after, to hasten their movements. His own 
absence left the band without a leader. Eighteen mounted 
white men rode up, dispersed the negroes at the road gate, 
pressed on up to the house and confronted the entire body of 
blacks. The white 'men dismounted, and, advancing under 
cover, sent a volley of balls and buck-shot into the insurrec- 
tionists' ranks. This the negroes immediately returned, when 
their masters broke and ran, the blacks pursuing. A fresh 
band of whites coming up at that moment from Jerusalem 
stayed the pursuit, and compelled the slaves, in turn, to break 
and run. Those on foot soon scattered, leaving Turner, with 
about twenty mounted confederates. With these he determin- 
ed to hold his ground, counting upon recruits enough to ena- 



SPERSION OF THE INSURGENTS. 401 

ble liim to pusli on, A large number gathered, but, at some 
alarm, most of them again scattered. Not dismayed, the reso- 
lute leader pressed on, at daylight, to the house of Dr. Blunt, 
in order to enlist his men. Here the insurrectionists were most 
unexpectedly checked. The Doctor had armed his slaves and 
- Turner's troop was met by a fire from the house which drove 
them off. Soon a company of whites appeared, and sent such 
a volley into the insurgent band as proved its destruction. It 
broke ere long into fragments, and the insurrection, for the 
moment, was at an end. Turner, after arranging to meet his 
most trusted coadjutors in the woods where the first conference 
had been held, ordered the entire dispersion of his dusky guard 
The murderers vanished from sight, every man of them return- 
ing to his own home as if no blood had stained his hands. 

The day passed and Nat proceeded to the rendezvous. All 
night long he waited yet not a man appeared. What a night 
it must have been for that turbulent spirit ! But, he was not 
dispirited. All day long he kept his hiding place, hoping that 
another night would gather, at least, his trusted friends — Hark, 
Dred, Will, Hercules, Nelson and Sam. Another night in 
those dreary solitudes, waiting and hoping in vain ! Not a 
footstep broke the stillness — not a moving form made the 
shadows of the forest less lifeless and oppressive. It then was 
apparent that his movement was a failure, and that even the 
refuge in the Dismal Swamp was denied him. The country, 
having had time to recover from its first paralysis, was now 
alive with men seeking for his blood. He resolved to tarry 
where he was, knowing where to procure food, and hoping 
that some friendly hand would offer to assist him in escape, 
either to the Swamp, or to the North. He therefore sought a 
good retreat, which he found in a pile of fence rails, out in a 
deserted field. Beneath these rails he dug a hole, and in that 
most forlorn spot he dwelt six weeks — only leaving it at night 
for food and drink. It was at once his dwelling, his arsenal 
and his meeting house. 

Thus far the direct fortunes of Turner. We must now turn 
to trace the secondary results of his revolt. Eumors spread 
with mysterious rapidity all over the land, magnifying events, 



402 IISrsURRECTION OF NAT TURNER. 

until the insurrection assumed most gigantic dimensions. 
It reached Eichmond to strike such terror among all classes as 
to render them incapable of aid. To arm for defense^ was their 
only thought. So in all other towns of Southern Virginia and 
Northern North Carolina — not a body of military could be put 
into the field until the danger had passed. United States troops 
from Fortress Monroe were the first in responding to the call 
for help. Colonel House, then in command, sent forward three 
companies of light artillery under Lieutenant-Colonel Worth. 
• — dispatching them by steamer to Suffolk. Detachments 
of marines and sailors from the U. S. sloops-of-war Warren and 
Natchez were added to this force, making it about eight hun- 
dred strong. These were first on the ground, and, alone, 
would have mastered almost any number of insurgents. But, 
rumor had so magnified the revolt, in its character and the 
numbers engaged, that, not only were the Virginia and North 
Carolina militia called to arms, but distant cities volunteered 
— New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and even New London, 
Connecticut, all ofiering military aid. The militia soon were 
on duty, and such duty as they performed has stained the page 
of Virginia's history. They murdered black men, almost in- 
discriminately, in Southampton County. "It was," said a 
member of the House of Delegates, " with the utmost difficulty 
and at the hazard of personal popularity and esteem, that the 
coolest and most judicious among us could exert an influence 
sufficient to restrain an indiscriminate slaughter of ihe blacks 
who were suspected." A letter from a clergyman on the spot 
said : " There are thousands of troops searching in every direc- 
tion, and many negroes are killed every day : the exact num- 
ber will never be ascertained." The magazine writer hereto- 
fore quoted from, says : 

"Men were tortured to death, burned, maimed, and subjected to 
namelete atrocities. The overseers were called on to point out any 
slaves whom they distrusted, and if any tried to escape, they were 
shot down. Nay, worse than this. A party of horsemen started from 
Kichmoud with the intention of killing every colored jjerson they 
saw in Southampton County. They stopped ojjposite the cabin of a 
free colored man, who was hoeing in his little iield. They called 
out, 'Is this Southampton County?' He replied, 'Yes, Sir, you have 



INCIDENTS OF THE UPRISING. 403 

just crossed the line, by yonder tree.' They shot him dead and rode 
on. This is from the narrative of the editor of the Richmond Whig, 
■who was then on duty in the militia, and protested manfully against 
those outrages. ' Some of these scenes,' he adds, ' are hardly inferior 
in barbarity to the atrocities of the insurgents.' " 

Indeed, many evidences, both public and private, exist 
M^bicli demonstrate the sanguinary and cruel nature of that re- 
tal i ation. Masters presented claims for compensation for slaves 
killed to the number of over one hundred ; nor was it until 
slave owners had resolved to shoot down any unauthorised 
white " patrol" found on their premises, that the slaughter was 
stayed. Not a few of these self-constituted guardians of the 
peace made it a boast that they had killed their share of " nig- 
gers." Some very affecting incidents of devotion are recorded 
in the annals of the day, one of which we must be permitted 
to repeat : "In the hunt which followed the massacre, a slave 
holder went into the woods, accompanied by a faithful slave, 
who had been the means of saving his life during the insurrec- 
tion. When they had reached a retired place in the forest, 
the man handed his gun to his master, informing him that he 
could not live a slave any longer, and requesting him either to 
free him or shoot him on the spot. The master took the gun, 
in some trepidation, levelled it at the faithful negro, and shot 
him through the heart." 

The number arrested for "trial" was fifty-five, of whom sev- 
enteen were convicted and hanged, twelve "transported" to the 
South, twenty acquitted, and four free colored men held for 
further examination. One of the executed was Lucy, a slave 
woman, the property of Mr. John T. Barrows. Nor were the 
" trials" confined to Southampton County. Said the Governor, 
in his message of Dec. 8th, relating to the affair : " there is 
much reason to believe that the spirit of insurrection was not 
confined to Southampton. Many convictions have taken place 
elsewhere, and some few in distant counties." But, nothing 
appears in Turner's "Confession,^ nor was anything elicited at 
the trials, to show the existence of any long premeditated and 
widely disseminated plot. If symptoms of insurrection were 
exhibited at other points it was simply because the slaves were 
50 



404 INSURRECTION OF NAT TURNER. 

ripe for revolt. News of Turner's success would have fired a 
train that led over the entire South, and in every black 
man's breast would have been found a magazine. The wonder 
is that so few actual explosions occurred. Had the black en- 
thusiast entered Jerusalem, and secured its stores of arms and 
money, Nat Turner's insurrection would have ended only by 
a general slaughter of slaves, in that region at least. 

To return to the pile of rails. For six weeks it gave shelter 
to the outlaw. Despite the most vigilant search he eluded all 
observation. Large rewards were offered for his capture and 
hundreds of men swarmed over the country in hope of se 
curing the prize. Every few days an announcement of his 
capture would be made, but, Nat Turner was not forthcoming : 
those eager for his blood were not yet gratified with an extem- 
porized gallows scene nor a burning at the stake. A dog at 
length proved the fugitive's ruin — or, rather, the provisions 
which Nat had secreted in his hole wrought the calamity. The 
animal, smelling the meat, made such a noise over the rail 
pile as to attract thither a party out on the search. Discovery 
at once followed (October 15th). Turner emerged from his 
cave like Lucifer from the bowels of the earth, and created 
quite as much consternation as if he had been that fallen poten- 
tate. The whole party fled in amazement, while Turner fled 
in the opposite direction, eluding pursuit. For ten days long- 
er he remained hidden in a wheat stack, although hundreds 
of men were scouring, and closely inspecting, every rood of 
land in that vicinity. Here he began to despair, and hope so 
far deserted him that he resolved upon surrender. One night 
he walked within two miles of Jerusalem, to place himself in 
the Sheriff's hands, but retraced his steps, safely passing the 
patrol established along the whole route. But, these days and 
nights of ceaseless watchfulness wore out even his iron frame, 
and he became haggard almost to insanity. His usual caution 
seems to have deserted him, Sor he was discovered by the own- 
er of the stacks (October 25th), who discharged a load of buck 
shot at him. Nat fell to the earth and thus escaped death, 
though twelve of the shot riddled his hat. He again fled, and, 
astonishing as it may seem, succeeded in making his escape. 



TU knee's captuke. 405 

Jfor five days longer the entire population, witli many n(;groes, 
were on his track, but failed to discover his person. October 
80th was his last day of savage freedom. A white man named 
Phipps, out on patrol, was passing an old pine clearing, when 
he beheld motion among the dry boughs. Stopping to watch 
he quickly discovered the fugitive's wild face and glaring eyes, 
emerging from a hole beneath the brush. Phipps, bringing 
his shot gun to bear, called out for Turner to surrender. Ex- 
hausted as he was with privation, and armed only with a sword, 
he could offer but little resistance. Even to have overcome 
the patrol would have been but to encounter others close at 
hand. He quietly submitted to be bound and was marched 
off to the nearest house. 

News of the capture flew on the wings of the wind, causing 
great rejoicing. Governor Floyd announced the fact in the 
Richmond Enquirer, with gratulations at the auspicious event. 

He was with difficulty saved from the fury of the m.ob who 
had determined to roast him alive. But, anxious to ferret out 
the history of the insurrection, leading citizens preferred to save 
him for trial ; escorted by a strong guard he was lodged in the 
county jail at Jerusalem. 

His end approached rapidly. Says the Atlantic writer: 
" When asked by Mr. T. R Gray, the counsel assigned him, 
whether, although defeated, he still believed in his own Provi- 
dential mission, he answered as simply as one who came thirty 
years after him, ' Was not Christ crucified ? ' In the same 
spirit, when arraigned before the court, he answered, ' Not 
guilty,' saying to his counsel that he did not feel so. But ap- 
parently no argument was made in his favor by his counsel, 
nor were any witnesses called — he being convicted on the tes- 
timony of Levi Waller, and upon his own confession, which 
was put in by Mr. Gray, and acknowledged by the prisoner 
before the six justices composing the court, as being 'full, free, 
and voluntary.' He was therefore placed in the paradoxical 
position of conviction by his own confession, under a plea of 
'Not guilty.' The arrest took place on the thirtieth of Octo- 
ber, 1831, the confession on the first of November, the trial 
and conviction on the fifth, and the execution on the following 



406 INSURRECTION OF NAT TURNER. 

Frida}'', tlie eleventb of November, precisely at noon. He met 
his death with perfect composure, declined addressing the 
multitude assembled, and told the Sheriff in a firm voice that 
he was ready. Another account says that he ' betraj^ed no 
emotion, and even hurried the executioner in the performance 
of his duty.' Not a limb nor a muscle was observed to move. 
His body, after his death, was given over to the surgeons for 
dissection." 

The confession here mentioned was made by Turner to his 
counsel and was published by Mr. Gray's authority in Balti- 
more. Fifty thousand copies, it is stated, were disposed of — 
an alarming fact, in the estimation of the pro-slave press — one 
of which called upon grand juries generally, where a copy of 
the publication was found, to indict Mr. Gray. The presump- 
tion was that it "would only serve to rouse up other leaders." 
Here, again, the greatness of the crime of allowing negroes to 
read was made manifest. After that day for a negro to be 
caught conning over a spelling book was to devote his bare 
back to the lash. The pamphlet was partially reprinted in 
New York, but, of the original fifty thousand, only one is 
mentioned as in existence — so thoroughly was the war waged 
.even against it. It was, from all the attendant circumstances, 
and from the character of the culprit, a remarkable document. 
Said Mr. Gray : " I shall not attempt to describe the effect of 
his narrative, as told and commented on by himself, in the 
condemned-hole of the prison. The calm, deliberate compos- 
ure with which he spoke of his late deeds and intentions, the 
expression of his fiend-like face when excited by enthusiasm, 
still bearing the stains of the blood of helpless innocence about 
him, clothed with rags and covered with chains, yet daring to 
raise his manacled hands to heaven, with a spirit soaring above 
the attributes of man — I looked on him, and the blood curdled 
in my veins." 

This is the tribute of one capable of appreciating greatness 
though he beheld in that greatness only the incarnation of evil. 
But, it fills out the picture of the Conspirator until he stands 
before us a personation at once sublime and appalling. 

Bid their spirits " begone ! " — wave away the presences which 



\ 

VIRGINIA ANTI-SLAVE SENTIMENT. 407 

float before the vision : it is all in vain. Nat Turner and old 
John Brown rise up like the fabled Nemeses, or the ghosts of 
Odin's bards, to fill their enemies' souls with an awe which 
generations will not allaj. 

The events of this terrible insurrection were not unmarked 
by political excitement in the Old Dominion State. There 
were those among her counsellors and legislators who read the 
story aright, and behind the crime saw the hateful agent which 
prompted it. This class of persons made a stroke at the insti- 
tution of slavery. Said James McDowell, one of Virginia's 
brightest lights, in a powerful speech made in the House of 
Delegates, in January, 1832 : 

"Was that a 'petty affair' which drove families from their homes — 
which assembled women and children in crowds, witlioiit shelter, at 
places of common refuge, in every condition of weakness and infirmity, 
under every suffering which want and terror could inflict, yet willing to 
endure all, willing to meet death from famine, death from climate, 
death from hardships, preferring anything rather than the horrors of 
meeting it from a domestic assassin ? Was that a ' petty affair' which 
erected a peaceful and coniiding jDortion of the State into a military 
camp — which outlawed from pity the unfortunate beings whose brothers 
had offended — which barred every door, penetrated every bosom with 
fear or suspicion — whicli so banished every sense of security from every 
man's dwelling, that let but a hoof or horn break upon the silence of 
the night, and an aching throb would be driven to the heart, the hus- 
band would look to his w^eapou, and the mother would shudder and 
weep upon her cradle ? Was it the fear of Nat Turner, and his deluded 
drunken handful of followers, which produced such effects ? Was it 
this that induced distant counties, where the very name of Southampton 
was strange, to arm and equip for a struggle ? iVo, Sh; it was the sus- 
picio?i eternally attached to the slave himself- — tlie suspicion that a Nat Tur- 
ner might le in every family — that the same Moody deed might le acted over 
at any time and in any place — that the materials for it were spread through 
the land, and were ahcays ready for a liTce explosion. Nothing but the 
force of this withering apprehension — nothing but the paralyzing and 
deadening weight with which it falls upon and prostrates the heart of 
every man who has helpless dependants to protect — nothing but this 
could have thrown a brave people into consternation, or could have 
made any portion of this powerful Commonwealth, for a single instant, 
to have quailed and trembled." 

But it was like the feeble voice against the whirlwind. Yir- 
ginia was wedded to old families, and old families were wedded 



408 INSUKRECTION OF NAT TURNER 

to slavery witli a tenacity quite unconquerable. As her soil 
became exhausted, and her resources contracted, the slave was 
made to contribute to the wealth of the State in a manner not 
contemplated by Virginians of the Eevolutionary era. The 
traffic in Eastern Virginia, in human flesh, from 1820, entered 
into her productive economy ; and, by 1830, the growing of 
slaves for market had assumed an importance not second to 
that of tobacco. In this trade the largest and the smallest es- 
tates participated. Another ten years witnessed the singular 
fact of many old and influential families living, to a great de- 
gree, off the human product of the negro huts. 

The insurrection of Turner only served to fasten the chains 
more firmly upon the negro race ; it deprived him of the confi- 
dence of the whites ; it restricted his little liberties and privi- 
leges ; it made the master more willing to treat his slave mere- 
ly as property, and to sell him as he would have sold an animal : 
it was a disaster to the black, from which flowed only misery 
to himself and his children. 



THE NUlimCATM REBELLION. 



The conflict between the State Eights idea and the antago- 
nistic idea of Federal supremacy it may be said was inaugurated 
by Mr. Calhoun, of South Carolina. Although he conceded 
Mr. Jefferson's resolutions of '98 to be the keystone of his po- 
litical system, Mr. Calhoun was the first statesman of influence 
who used the principles evolved by those resolutions to build 
up a great schism in the Federal institution. He became the 
representative man of a new school in politics which assumed 
supremacy for a State and the right of a State to nullify acts 
of Congress ; and he now stands forward in history as the au- 
thor of a system' which, so long as this Eepublic shall last, 
will be the opposing element to Federal consolidation and cen- 
tralization of power. 

Mr. Calhoun entered Congress in 1812, and from that time 
onward, for a period of forty years, was one of the controlling 
forces in Congress and in Executive circles. Possessing a mind 
of extraordinary subtlety and accumen, with great powers of 
physical endurance, and a resolution perfectly indomitable, he 
was admirably formed by nature for the part he played ; and 
the success which attended his efforts attest less the truth of 
his principles than the perseverance with which they were 
pressed upon the country. He sustained the war policy of 
Madison and it prevailed ; he opposed Dallas' scheme for a 

» See Calhoun's Works (6 vols. Appleton & Co., 1855), vol. i., disquisition on 
Government. Aside from his great speech on the Force Bill, Feb. 15th, 1832, and 
Ills reply to Webster, Feb. 2Gth, 1832, his Letter to Governor Hammond, of South 
Carolina, August 2Sth, 1832, as well as his " Address to the People of South Caro- 
lina," of July 26th, 1831, embody the Southern Statesman's views on the Constitu- 
tion and Government. The essay above mentioned, and the four efforts here 
referred to, form a perfect compendium of his political philosophy. 



410 THE NULLIFICATION REBELLION". 

National Bank and it was rejected ; he reported a substitute 
and it was accepted; opposed all tariffs as nnconstitutional, 
except Hamilton's tariif of a revenue, and, after a struggle of 
sixteen years [1816-1832] witnessed the practical triumph of 
his opposition ; he opposed as unconstitutional the principle 
of internal improvements by the General Government, and 
lived to behold the success of his labors against that system ; 
he aimed at the Presidency and served as "Vice President for 
two terms, and must have been President but for the over- 
mastering influence of Andrew Jackson; he espoused the 
cause of State Eights in a direct issue with the General Gov- 
ernment, and, despite the superhuman exertions made to crush 
the movement inaugurated by him for nullification, he had the 
pleasure of forcing from Congress such concessions as placed 
his principles on a Jirm footing ; scorning the Missouri Com- 
promise, and demanding the rights of the South to introduce 
slavery in the Territories, he lived to see the movement initi- 
ated which ended in the overthrow of that solemn contract, and 
the opening of the Territories to the South on the "Squatter 
Sovereignty" plan : work enough, truly for one man, and suc- 
cess enough to satisfy any other ambition than that which John 
C. Calhoun cherished. He only failed to disintegrate tlie 
Union, or to ingraft upon our Constitution the novel feature 
of a dual executive, which should secure to the Slave States 
one half of the Executive, with veto power, &c. But, his prin- 
ciples survived their master dii-ector; and, had he lived ten 
years more, his eager soul would have been gladdened by the 
secession of the Southern States according to his plans pro- 
posed and acted upon in 1831-2. Hence his life must be pro- 
nounced a gigantic success, when viewed by its results. Tl)at 
these results were triumphs of evil over good we are not pre- 
pared to assume ; but, that the fruits of his doctrines have 
been pernicious to the order, stability and humanitarian spirit 
of the Great Kepublic, is not now a matter of debate among 
those who reverence the Union and hold obedience to the Laws 
a paramount duty. 

The introduction to Congress of Henry Clay's tariff of 1824, 
was the source of much feeling throughout the South. That 



f. 



THE BONE OF CONTENTION. 411 

section being almost purely agricultural, and a heavy consum- 
er of imported goods, felt aggrieved at duties which increased 
the cost of living without offering any adequate return. It was 
regarded as a measure to build up the commercial and manu- 
facturing North, and, by Mr. Calhoun, was also condemned as 
clearly unconstitutional. 1 The excuse urged for its adoption 
was the prostrate condition of the country's finances and ener- 
gies, "indicated," Clay said, in his elaborate speech sustaining 
the new impositions (March 31st, 1824), " by the diminished 
exports of native produce ; by the depressed and reduced state 
of our foreign navigation ; by our diminished commerce ; by 
successive unthrashed crops of grain perishing in our barns 
and barn -yards for the want of a market; by the alarming 
diminution of the circulating medium ; by the numerous bank- 
ruptcies, not limited to the trading classes, but extending to all 
orders of society ; by a universal complaint of the want of em- 
ployment and a consequent reduction of the wages of labor; 
by the ravenous pursuit after public situations, not for the 
sake of their honors and the performance of their public duties, 
but as a means of private subsistence ; by the reluctant resort 
to the perilous use of paper money ; by the intervention of 
legislation in the delicate relation between debtor and creditor ; 
and, above all, by the low and depressed state of the value of 
almost every description of the whole mass of the property of 
the nation, which has, on an average, sunk not less than about 
fifty per cent, within a few years." 

After much opposition the new tariff passed by a very close 
vote — 25 to 21 in the Senate, and 107 to 102 in the House. 
This measure produced such good results that, in 1828, a fur- 
ther revision was proposed, chiefly at the instigation of a Na- 
tional Convention of manufacturers and producers held at Har- 
risburg in July, 1827, and called to discuss the interests in- 
volved. The friends of Jackson and anti-tariff charged that 
the Convention was a political trick to elect John Quincy 
Adams, by throwing the iron, hemp and wool growing inte- 
rests against the opponents of the " American System" of pro- 
tection. But, it was less a political than an economical assem- 
bly, as its labors indicated. Its discussions were those of prac- 
61 



412 THE NULLIFICATION REBELLION. 

tical men — men whose interests were involved, and whose ex- 
perience was brought forward to direct legislation. The me- 
morial from this body praying for an augmentation of duties 
on various goods and manufactures specified, was sent in to 
Congress. This was acted upon and a bill introduced "calcu- 
lated to favor the wool and hemp growers and to satisfy the 
iron manufacturers, but not affording the desired protection to 
the manufacturers of woollen and cotton goods, though it was 
afterwards so arranged as to be more agreeable to them." This 
bill elicited the best talent of both Houses in its laborious pas- 
sage, and finally was adopted by an almost purely sectional vote. 
Aside from the great hemp growing State of Kentucky only 
three votes were given the measure by members from the 
Southern States, who truly represented the feeling of their sec- 
tion in opposing the bill at every stage of its passage. It was 
received at the South with such expressions of disapprobation 
by Legislatures, by the press and by the people as left no doubt 
of the intensely sectional animosity then aroused. Large 
meetings of planters and citizens followed throughout the cot- 
ton growing States. At one, held in the Colleton district, 
South Carolina, during June, 1828, to consider the best reme- 
dy for the act of Congress, Mr. Calhoun was present and con- 
tributed to give character to the proceedings. The meeting 
declared nullification and non-obedience to be the rightful 
remedy; but, policy impelled to no open action until the 
Presidential election was decided. / Mr. Calhoun saw the dan- 
ger to Jackson's and his own election if violence resulted. He 
counselled obedience to the law until it was certain that Jack- 
son's administration could not or would not reduce the duties 
to their old standard of 1816. If, after granting this time, it 
was demonstrated that no reduction would be made, then he 
advised that the unconstitutional law be resisted and that the 
State, by proper action, interpose to nullify the law. At 
the request of William C. Preston he " prepared a paper ex- 
posing the objectionable features of the act of 1828 and the 
injurious effects which must result from it, and pointing out 
the remedy for the evil. Five thousand copies of this paper 
were ordered to be printed by the Legislature which met in 



Calhoun's letter to preston. 413 

December, 1828, under the title of The South Carolina Ex- 
position and Protest on the subject of the Tariff.' /The Legis- 
lature then contented itself with passing a resolution declaring 
the tariff acts of Congress for the protection of domestic manu- 
factures unconstitutional, and that they ought to be resisted, 
and inviting other States to co-operate with South Carolina in 
measures of resistance." / Prior to this, however, he had writ- 
ten numerous letters to leading spirits throughout the South, 
for the specific purpose of bringing the public mind up to the 
point of resistance and co-operation when South Carolina should 
take her initiatory steps. One of his letters lately brought to 
light is in answer to Mr. Preston's request for him to prepare 
the document ' above referred to. From this letter we obtain 
inside views of the rebellion proposed, and therefore quote : 
"Pendleton, (S. C.,) Nov. 6, 1838. 

" Dear Sir : Believing as I thoroughly do, that the liberty and hap- 
piness of our country depend on the course which our State may take in 
this great juncture, I am prepared to contribute whatever may be in my 
power, to aid in giving a salutary direction to her Council. 

" The particular duty, which you request me to perform, is one of the 
highest importance, and no small difficulty. We have the basis in the 
report of Mr. Madison, and the proceedings of the Virginia and Ken- 
tucky Legislatures on the ' Alien and Sedition Act.' But from the dis- 
similarity between the character of the encroachments of the General 
Government then and now, very little aid can be derived from them in 
drawing up a paper for the present occasion. In casting my eyes over 
the subject, it strikes me that with the greatest compression consistent 
\vith clearness, the document must necessarily be voluminous — so many 
end so important are the principles involved, and so various are its de- 
tails. It will, of course, take time and labor; it will require the aid of 
documents not in my possession. I have but a short period to remain 
at home, and I am much engaged in my domestic concerns, preparatory 
to setting out to Washington ; but I will permit nothing to prevent me 
from sending on such aid that my friends may think I ought. I will 
commence a draft immediately. * * * Your views appear to me to 
be perfectly correct. Excise will not do. I deem it the most dangerous 
recourse that could be adopted, and would certainly be followed by de- 
fuat. The remedy you refer to is the only safe and efficient one, and is 
abundantly adequate. I speak with confidence. It alone can save the 
Union. The only question is the mode and time. It seems to me clear 
that the State must act by convention, but also am strongly of opinion 



414 THE NULLIFICATION REBELLION. 

that we must take time, especially if a new administration should come 
in, as there can be but little doubt it will. 

" All moves aiming at reform and revolution as ours is, must, to be 
successful, be characterized by great resjDect for the opinion of others. 
On this great question we are far in advance of the intelligence of the 
other States, even of those which have the same interest with ourselves. 
Our measures, however sound, however justified by the noble examiJlc 
of Virginia, in '98, will appear at first to all our friends, novel, bold and 
even dangerous, and to those who exact tribute from us, treasonable. 
Yet, thought will be put in motion. And, as our cause rests in truth 
and the Constitution, it will gain daily, till it will finally prevail, if we 
act with wisdom and moderation. 

" These views are greatly strengthened on the supposition of a change 
of administration. It would seem but a reasonable confidence in the 
new administration to afibrd time to see what its wisdom and virtue 
may effect — not to aff"ord which will be considered hostile to it, and ex- 
pose the State to the imputation of dangerous designs, which ought to 
be especially guarded against, 

" There has been heretofore a want of caution on this important point, 
which has exposed us to great danger, and which renders greater cau- 
tion more necessary. It seems to me that all that can be done at present 
is an able report, fully exposing our wrongs, and unfolding our remedies, 
but to abstain for the present from applying it on grounds of respect 
for others and a sense of moderation, with the adoption of such measures 
as may produce harmony of opinion among the oppressed States. It 
seems to me it would also be judicious to approve of the course adopted 
by our people to raise their own supplies, and to abstain as far as may 
be jiracticable from the consumption of the articles fostered by the tariff 
— but accomjjanied with a caution not to consider it more than a tem- 
porary jjalliative. 

" I make these suggestions with deference, knowing how much must 
depend on circumstances, which can only be judged of by those on the 
spot. If we succeed, it will constitute one of the most glorious reforms 
ever effected. But, if we fail, we will have the poor consolation of 
thinking of the greater disaster, which would have taken place, without 
an effort on our part — the loss of our liberty." 

This was written by the Vice President of the United States, 
while yet exercising tlie functions of his high office ; and its 
author, as the Democratic candidate for the same trust, was 
even then reelected. Considering the tone of Mr. Calhoun's 
addresses, that he was not at once arraigned for treason was 
due to the danger of such a course, as well as to the apparently 
good cause of complaint which the malcontents urged as their 



Benton's STATEMENT. 415 

justification. Benton, in his " Thirty Years' Yiew," gives us 
the following statement of the actual condition of the question. 
We cite it as presenting what time has demonstrated to have 
been a very fair presentment of the case : 

" The South believed itself impoverished to enrich the North 
by this system ; and certainly a singular and unexpected re- 
sult has been seen in these two sections. In the colonial state 
the Southern were the rich part of the colonies, and expected 
to do well in a state of independence. They had the exports, 
and felt sure of their prosperity. Not so of the North, whose 
agricultural resources were few, and who expected privations 
from the loss of British favor. But in the first half century 
after independence this expectation was reversed. The wealth 
of the North was enormously aggrandized ; that of the South 
had declined. Northern towns had become great cities ; South- 
ern cities had decayed, or become stationery ; and Charleston, 
the principal port of the South, was less considered than before 
the Revolution. The North became a money-lender to the 
South, and Southern citizens made pilgrimages to Northern 
cities to raise money upon the hypothecation of their patrimo- 
nial estates. And this in the face of Southern exports since 
the Revolution to the value of eight hundred millions of dol- 
lars — a sum equal to the product of the Mexican mines since 
the days of Cortez. The Southern States attributed this result 
to the action of the Federal Government — its alleged double 
action of levying revenue upon the industry of one section of 
the Union and expending it on another — and especially to its 
protective tariffs. But the protective system, in any degree, 
except in favor of cotton-planting, had been in existence only 
twelve years, and this reversed condition of the two sections 
had commenced long before that time. Philosophy and obser- 
vation have long since discovered the cause to be found, not 
in the operations of the National Government, which has al- 
ways been beneficent, but in the social character and the indus- 
trial systems of the two sections. But such was the pretense 
— a mere pretense, as President Jackson alleged — used by Mr. 
Calhoun and his associates for justifying disloyal speech in 
Congress, and action in South Carolina." 



416 THE NULLIFICATION REBELLION. 

The years intervening between 1828 and the session of 1831 
-2 were years of great commercial and landed prosperity ; the 
new " System" developed manufactures and mines with aston- 
ishing rapidity and with beneficent results ; on every hand out 
of the South the country was satisfied with " protective" results, 
whatever may have been the theoretic opposition of Free Trade 
partisans. But, in Congress, great excitement prevailed, ac- 
companied by a corresponding feeling among the people. A 
New England Senator had, early in the session for 1829-30, 
offered a resolution of inquiry into the expediency of limiting 
sales of public lands to those then in market, to suspend the 
surveys, and to abolish the office of Surveyor General. This 
proposition doubtless had its political face, although it was 
urged that, the public revenues then being in excess of the 
General Government's needs, it would be economj'- to fill up 
the territory already opened before proceeding with farther 
surveys of territory. Western members " took fire" at 
what was deemed to be a stroke at their section's pro- 
gress, which, if not stayed, would transfer the seat of political 
power to the west of the Alleghanies, in another decade. Cri- 
mination and recrimination resulted ; the West was pitted 
against the East, but particularly against New England, which 
was severely overhauled for its Federalism, its Hartford Con- 
vention, its friendship for a foreign enemy (England) and for 
its unappeasable spirit of domination. This contention, promis- 
ing the worst results, Webster sough to allay the tumult by 
moving an indefinite postponement of the entire question. 
Sustaining his motion with "remarks," he only added fuel to 
the flame, by enlarging the scope of debate. The Ordinance 
of 1798 and the Missouri Compromise were introduced. At 
once the ghost of Slavery, supposed to have been forever ap- 
peased by the " restriction" of 1822, came up and laid its 
manacles upon the altar.] Webster, as the exponent of New 
England sentiment, conceived slavery to be the Eepublie's 
bane. In one of his speeches he introduced the illustration 
frequently quoted, of the relative progress of the Slave State 
of Kentucky and the Free State of Ohio — a comparison higlily 
damaginsr to the cause of slave labor. This inflamed the 



HAYNE AND WEBSTER. 417 

Southern spirit. To jpropagate tbeir system of involuntary ser- 
vitude was boldly avowed as a political and constitutional 
right. In the utterance of these sentiments the brilliant Eob- 
ert Y. Hayne, of South Carolina, became conspicuous. Pie 
denounced the interference of the North with slavery — assum- 
ing that it was a State institution, and therefore was no body's 
business but their own. /The question of State Eights came 
into the turbulent arena, and laid its broken bundle of fasces 
upon the altar beside the chains and manacles. The celebrated 
contest between Hayne and Webster was the result. ] The 
South Carolinian planted himself upon Calhoun's platform of 
the right of a State to pronounce upon the validity and consti- 
tutionality of National laws and to nullify them if the State 
should so elect. His several speeches startled the country by 
their boldly avowed doctrines, proving the extreme Southern 
States to favor, at heart, disunion. 

To these alarming sentiments Webster, thoroughly aroused, 
replied at great length, and his two answers to Hayne (Janua- 
ry, 1830) stand as great living texts on the powers of the 
Government. 

In this debate Hayne doubtless spoke with the sanction and 
co-operation of the Vice President. His efforts were designed 
to create a broad distinctive issue, upon which to create a party 
whose ultimate object was to denationalize the Government, or, 
failing in this, to prepare the way for a peaceable division of 
the Union. The more to give this movement momentum it 
was planned to make Thomas Jefferson assume the paternity 
of the party, by acknowledging his resolutions of '98 — as ori- 
ginally prepared by him — to be its fundamental principles. A 
dinner party was, therefore, given at the Capital (April 13th, 
1830) upon the occasion of Jefferson's birth day. Many emi- 
nent men of ' Democratic' faith were present, including the 
President of the United States, the Yice President, three mem- 
bers of the Cabinet, members of Congress, &c. All, outward 1}^, 
seemed only the offering of patriotism, but, beneath it all was 
the spirit of disunion. The regular toasts, apparently proper 
for the occasion, were, upon their dissemination, discovered to 
be so subtly yet so strongly tinctured with the South Carolina 



418 THE NULLIFICATION REBELLION. 

view of State Rights that numbers of the invited guests with- 
drew from the feast. The President's attention being directed 
to the discovery he was advised to withdraw. He refused, 
however, to desert the table, and, as the sequel proved, for a 
patriotic reason. He had resolved to rebuke the disloyal spirit 
of the gathering. Dinner being over the regular toasts were 
introduced — over one half of them prepared by Mr. Calhoun. 
These were received with expressions of satisfaction, and nul- 
lification seemingly became a fixed fact with the Jeffersonian 
Democracy, so far as " regular" toasts at a Jeffersonian festival 
could be trusted as exponents of principles. Volunteer senti- 
ments were then in oi'der, when Jackson, rising, threw this 
bombshell into the proceedings : 

" Our Federal Union : it must he preserved ! " 
— a sentiment designed and regarded as a proclamation from 
the President to announce a plot against the Union. The next 
toast, by Mr. Calhoun, did not by any means allay the Presi- 
dent's apprehensions. It was : 

" The Union, next to our liberty, the most dear : may we all remember 
that it can only be joreserved by respecting the rights of the States, and 
distributing equally the benefit and burthen of the Union." 

In the language of Thomas H. Benton, who was present, 
" this toast touched all the tender parts of the new question — 
liberty before Union — only to be preserved. / State Rights, 
inequality of burthens and benefits. These phrases connect- 
ing themselves with Mr. Hayne's speech, and with proceedings 
and publications in South Carolina, unveiled nullification as a 
new and distinct doctrine in the United States, and the exist- 
ence of a new party in the field." 

The Democracy, becoming alarmed at this new movement, 
and beholding in it the seeds of National dissohition, hastened 
to repudiate the Calhoun programme. Madison, still living, 
spoke and wrote with great earnestness against the construc- 
tion put upon hie Virginia resolutions and address, and strove 
to defend Jefferson's fair fame from the responsibility of having 
to father South Carolina's heresy.^ The Virginia Legislature 
also passed resolves to protect Jefferson's memory, imperilled 

* See Appendix for Madison's defense of himself and Jefferson. 



Calhoun's sentiments. 419 

by association with nullification and disunion. But, these dis- 
claimers did not prevent the Southern party from spreading 
and strengthening, and, despite Madison's special plea, despite 
the Virginia Legislature's resolves, the new constructionists 
adhered to their claim upon the father of Democracy, and 
thirty years of contention did not deprive them of that claim. 

Strengthened by their now open movement upon the State 
Rights' plea, and united by the still persistent denial of Con- 
gress to. reduce the offensive tariff", affairs assumed a menacing 
aspect as the Presidential election of 1832 approached. It be- 
came evident to the most unobserving that an explosion was 
at hand. | Calhoun's relations with Jackson were not even 
friendly, for the President, from the hour of that dinner party, 
had watched the Vice President with distrust. (This feeling 
culminated in the conviction that Calhoun really meditated a 
disruption of the Union — using the tariff" as a popular pretext 
— upon the appearance of his (Calhoun's) " Letter to Governor 
Hamilton," dated Fort Hill, August 28th, 1832. 1 Its assump- 
tions were so clearly inimical to the authority and supremacy 
of the General Government, that Jackson was no longer in 
doubt as to the stroke for " independence" meditated by the 
intriguants. It contained such sentiments as the following 
(the italics being Mr. Calhoun's own) : 

'• On a question whether a particular power exercised by the General 
Government be granted by the Constitution, it belongs to the State as a 
member of the Union, in her sovereign capacity in convention, to deter- 
mine definitively, as far as her citizens are concerned, the extent of the 
obligation which she contracted : and if, in her opinion, the act exer- 
cising the power be unconstitutional, to declare it null and void, which 
declaration would be obligatory on her citizens?'' 

"In whatever light it may be viewed, I hold it as necess<trily re- 
sulting, that, in the case of a power disputed between them, the 
Government, as the agent, has no right to enforce its construction 
against the construction of the State as one of the sovereign parties 
to the Constitution, any more than the State government would have 
against the people of the State in their sovereign capacity, the rela- 
tion being the same between them." 

" The General Government is a case of joint agency — the joint agent 
of the twenty-four sovereign States, It would be its duty, according 
to the principles established in such cases, instead of attempting to 

52 



420 THE NULLIFICATION REBE LLION. 

enforce its construction of its powers against that of the States, to 
bring tlie subject before the States themselves, in the only form which, 
according to the provision of the Constitution, it can be — by a pro- 
position to amend, in the manner prescribed in the instrument, to 
be acted on by them in the only mode they can, by expressly granting 
or withholding the contested power." 

" Not a provision can be found in the Constitution authorizing the 
General Oovernment to exercise any control whatever over a State by force, 
by veto, by judicial process, or in any other form — a most important 
omission^ designed and not accidentaV 

" The construction which would confer on the Supreme Court the 
power in question, rests on the ground that the Constitution has con- 
ferred on that tribunal the high and important right of deciding on 
the constitutionality of laics. That it possesses this power I do not deny, 
but I do utterly deny that it is conferred by the Constitution, either by 
the provisions cited, or any other. It is a power derived from the ne- 
cessity of the case ; and, so far from being possessed by the Supreme 
Court exclusively or peculiarly, it not only belongs to every court of 
the country, high or low, civil or criminal, but to all foreign courts, be- 
fore which a case may be brought involving the construction of a law 
which may conflict with the provisions of the Constitution." 

" The opinion that the General Government has the right to enforce 
its construction of its powers against a State, in any mode whatever, is, 
in truth, founded on a fundamental misconception of our system. At 
the bottom of this, and, in fiict, in almost every other misconception as 
to the relation between the States and the General Government, lurks 
the radical error, that the latter is a National, and not, as in reality it is, 
a Confederate Government ; and that it derives its powers ft om a higher 
source than the States. There are thousands influenced by these im- 
pressions without being conscious of it, and who, while they believe 
themselves to be opposed to consolidation, have into their conception 
of our Constitution almost all the ingredients which enter into that 
form of government." 

" However dissimilar their governments, the present Constitution is as 
far removed from consolidation, and is as strictly and purely a confedera- 
tion, as the one ichich it superseded.'''' 

" I have now, I trust, conclusively shown that a State has a right, in 
her sovereign capacity, in convention, to declare an unconstitutional act 
of Congress to be. null and void, and that such declarations would be 
obligatory on her citizens, as highly so as the Constitution itself, and 
conclusive against the General Government, which would have no right 
to enforce its construction of its powers against that of the State." 

" I next propose to consider the practical efi'ect of the exercise of thi& 
high and important right— which, as the great conservative principle 



NULLIFICATION NOT SECESSION. 42J. 

of our system, is known under the various names of nullification, inter- 
position and State veto — in reference to its operation viewed under dif- 
ferent aspects: nullification, as declaring null an unconstitutional act 
of the General Government, as far as the State is concerned ; interposi- 
tion, as throwing the shield of protection between the citizen of a State 
and the encroachments of the Government ; and veto, as arresting or 
inhibiting its unauthorized acts within the limits of the State." 

The nullificator then proceeded to prove to the Governor, 
and, through him, to the people of the South, that the Greneral 
Government, possessing no 'power to enforce its laws against a 
State, could not coerce a State by any process of the courts.' 
This, by inference, left the State free to act, without fear of 
punishment or "coercion." He did, indeed, make a labored 
and an able argument to prove that nullification did not ne- 
cessitate secession — that, to nullify laws was not to reject 
Federal relations and responsibilities, f He said, as deducible 
from his argument : 

" Nullification leaves the members of the association or union in the 
condition it found them — subject to all its burdens, and entitled to all 
its advantages, comprehending the member nullifying as well as the 
others — its object being, not to destroy, but to preserve, as has been 
stated. It simply arrests the act of the agent, as far as the principal is 
concerned, leaving in every other respect the operation of the joiut con- 
cern as before ; secession, on the contrary, destroys, as far as the with- 
drawing member is concerned, the association or union, and restores him 
to the relation he occupied towards the other members before the exist- 
ence of the association or union. He loses the benefit, but is released 
from the burden and control, and can no longer be dealt with, by his 
former associates, as one of its members." 

And he added this somewhat remarkable expression: 
. " With institutions every way so fortunate, possessed of means so 
well calculated to prevent disorders, and so admirable to correct 
them when they cannot be j^revented, lie who would prescribe for our 
political disease disunion on the one side, or coercion of a State in the 
assertion of its rights on the other, tcould deserve and will receive, the exe- 
crations of this and all future generations.'''' 

» Judge Black's opinion [quoted at length in Victor's History of the Southern 
Rebellion, vol. i. pages 66-69] as given to Mr. Buchanan Nov. 20th, 1860, for his 
guidance in the treatment of rebellion, clearly re-enunciated Mr. Calhoun's propo- 
Bitions— that he had no power, under the Constitution, to coerce a State to obedi- 
ence. Behind that opinion the President entrenched himself to excuse his non- 
action for nipping the rebellion in the bud. 



422 THE NULLIFICATION EEBELLION. 

We characterise it as a remarkable expression in view of 
the practical results of nullification, which must have been as 
clear to Mr. Calhoun's mind as a noon-day sun to his eye. He 
was safe in the declaration of devotion to the Union, because 
the Government must strike the first blow if it would drive a 
State out of the right of nullification ; in which event, according 
to Mr. Calhoun's argument and political theory, the bond of 
Union would be dissolved ex necessitate reV He was, as at the 
dinner party, for the Union with a qualification, which after- 
wards was aptly expressed in the phrase — " obedience to the 
Constitution but allegiance to the State." 

One of Mr. Calhoun's biographers says of this letter : " This 
elaborate production exhausted the whole argument in defense 
of the position assumed by Mr. Calhoun, and, with his address, 
was regarded as a political text book by the nullifiers of South 
Carolina. They looked upon it as their Magna Charta, which 
promised them deliverance from wrong and oppression, and 
behind which were safety and protection." And we quite 
agree with the author in his opinion concerning the harmony 
between the South Carolinian's creed and that enunciated by 
Jefferson and Madison. Mr. Jenkins says : " The Virginia re- 
solutions declared, in express terms, the right of the States to 
interpose, whenever their reserved powers were infringed, and 
to maintain ' within their respective limits, the authorities, 
rights and liberties, appertaining to them ; ' and in the Ken- 
tucky resolutions, Mr. Jefferson held, ' that in all cases of an 
abuse of delegated powers, the members of the General Govern- 
ment being chosen by the people, a change by the people 
would be the constitutional remedy ; but, where powers are 
assumed, which have not been delegated, a nullification of the act 
is the rightful remedy that every State has a natural right to, in 
cases not in the compact {casus nan foederis), to nullify, of their 

• Calhoun's life was one of Tvarring against the doctrine of Federal supremacy, 
yet he found it no contravention of principle to utter Union sentiments. Thus, in 
his letter announcing to the South Carolina Legislature (Nov. 26th, 1842) his pur- 
pose to resign his seat in the U. S. Senate, he closed with this expression : 

" That the State may long retain her high standing in the Union, and that the 
Union itself, with our free and happy and glorious institutions, may be transmitted 
to the latest generation, shall, to my last breath, ever be my ardent prayer." 



THE ALARUM SOUNDED. 423 

own authority, all assumptions of powers within their limits.' " 
All the special pleading and protestation yet exhausted upon 
the question have not succeeded in disproving Mr. Calhoun's 
obligation to Jefferson. He differed with the Virginian in 
matters of detail- rather than in first principles. 

The revenue produced by the tariff of 1828 proved too much 
of a good thing. It threatened the public treasury with ple- 
thora — a condition more to be dreaded by all good citizens 
than financial depletion. Something must be done to stop the 
receipts, as well as to stay the storm brewing in South Caroli- 
na. Jackson, in his annual message, December, 1831, recom- 
mended a reduction of the duties. An attempt was made to 
revise the schedule so as not to affect injuriously the multitude 
of interests involved. /After much labor an amended act 
passed enhancing the duty on woollens five per cent, but re- 
ducing that on iron and sugar, and abolishing the duty on 
coffee and a great number of other articles of general consump- 
tion. \ The vote on this Was, in the House : Northern States — 
yeas 73, nays 35 ; Southern States — yeas 49,^nays 20. This 
gave thirty-two per cent, of the Northern and thirty-eight per 
cent, of the Southern vote against reduction. In the Senate 
the vote was : Northern States — yeas 23, nays 1 ; Southern 
States — yeas 9, nays 15, or four per cent, of the Northern and 
sixty-two per cent, of the Southern vote against reduction ! 
The result apparently demonstrated that the country, taken in 
the aggregate, was satisfied with the protective system. 

South Carolina rebelled. Mr. Calhoun sounded the note of 
alarm. The moment for action had come. A test had been 
submitted, and Congress absolutely refused to recede from its 
position. There only remained for South Carolina to enforce 
her old threat of non-obedience to the mandates of Congress. 
Mr. Calhoun issued an address to the people, announcing that 
a protective policy might thenceforth be regarded as settled 
upon the country — that all hope of relief from Congress must 
be abandoned — that the people of the State must now act in 
their own behalf This address engendered a very revolution- 
ary feeling, though a powerful, but at first fruitless, opposition 
to Calhoun's views and plans was offered by a class of wealthy 



424 THE NULLIFICATION REBELLION". 

and influential citizens led by sucli spirits as Poinsett, Pettigru, 
Colonel Drayton, ex-Governor Manning, &c. These men sought 
to prevent the nullifiers from obtaining the two- thirds majority 
in the Legislature necessary to call a State Convention. If 
that call could be prevented there would be no State action, 
and, consequently, no resistance to the General Government, 
except such as the Legislature (in its legislative not sovereign 
cap)acity) might authorise the Governor to take. But, their 
strenuous labors were of no avail ; before the great strength of 
Calhoun's influence nothing could stand. Meetings took place 
throughout the State close upon the Presidential election. The 
Legislature came together amid much excitement. One of its 
first acts was to appoint a Committee to report on the relations 
of the State with the General Government. It reported that 
the Federal Constitution was a compact originally formed, not 
between the people of the different States as distinct and inde- 
pendent sovereignties ; that when any violation of the spirit 
of that compact took place, it was not only the right of the 
people, but of the State Legislature, to remonstrate against it ; 
that the Federal Government was responsible to the State Le- 
gislatures whenever it assumed powers not conferred ; that 
notwithstanding a tribunal was appointed under the Constitu- 
tion to decide controversies where the United States was a par- 
ty, there were some questions that must occur between the 
Government and the State which it would be unsafe to submit 
to any judicial tribunal ; and finally, that there was a peculiar 
propriety in a State Legislature's undertaking to decide for it- 
self, inasmuch as the Constitution had not provided any 
remedy. 

A convention of delegates was thereupon ordered (October 
22d) to assemble on the 19th of November, to act for the State, 
in the crisis. Meanwhile the Virginia Legislature, also, by a 
vote of 154 to 68, gave her assent to the principle of nullifica- 
tion. North Carolina declared against it and held out firmly 
fur the Constitution and the laws. Alabama and Georgia en- 
dorsed South Carolina heartily ; and their course led the coun- 
try to feel that, in event of South Carolina's secession, they 
would follow her lead. Government had just succeeded at 



THE ORDINANCE OF NULLIFICATION. 425 

enormous cost,^ in extinguishing the Indian titles to lands in 
these States, and they in return, were ready to cast off the 
Government. 

An election, by the people, of delegates resulted in an almost 
unanimous choice of Calhoun men. The delegates gathered at 
Columbia, at the appointed time, and the Convention duly or- 
ganized by the election of ex-Governor Hamilton as its Presi- 
dent On the 21st of November, the Ordinance of Nullifica- 
tion was adopted. The tariff acts of 1828 and 1832 were de- 
clared null and void and not binding upon the citizens of the 
States. It was further declared that if the United States should 
attempt to enforce them by naval or military force, the Union 
was to be dissolved, and a convention called to form a govern- 
ment for South Carolina. 1 It further provided that no appeal 
should be permitted to the Supreme Court of the United States 
in any question concerning the validity of the ordinance, or of 
the laws passed to give effect thereto. 

Having thus discharged its duties the Convention adjourned 
to meet again in March after the adjournment of Congress. The 
Ordinance was law by the nature of the Convention, without 
any submission of it to the people, for acceptance or rejection. 
South Carolina was a democracy only in form. Even her 
Governor was not chosen by the people but by the Legislature, 
which body was, simply, the representative of property hold- 
ers and " first families." Out of the forty thousand voters then 
in the State it is fair to say one thousand directed the entire 
mass, while, of this one thousand, not one hundred were unin- 
fluenced by three or four men who directed the State's destiny. 
With the forms of a democracy. South Carolina, practically, 
and in all essential features, was an aristocracy. The Conven- 
tion legislated the Ordinance into existence and the Legislature 
proceeded to provide for its enforcement, the legislators being 
convened for the especial purpose, by call of the Governor 
The acts adopted embraced one authorizing the Governor to 
call on the militia to resist any attempt on the part of the Gov- 
ernment of the United States to enforce the revenue laws. 
/'Ten thousand stand of arms and the requisite quantity of mili- 
tary munitions were ordered to be purchased, and any acts 



426 THE NULLIFICATION REBELLION. 

done in pursuance of that law were to be held- lawful in the 
State courts. 

Says a Democratic writer :' " the State placed itself in an 
attitude of military preparation for the defense of its position ; 
organized and armed its own physical force ; and succeeded in 
arousing so determined and excited a state of feeling in its 
citizens, that we think there can be no doubt that it would 
have maintained its position to the last extremity — a position, 
manifestly, exceedingly difficult to be overcome, if thus main- 
tained, by any physical power which could have been brought 
against it." 

~ All of these things transpired with the advice and approba- 
tion of Mr. Calhoun. They embodied his programme for 
"strengthening the Union by purifying it," and the country 
beheld the sad spectacle of a State in arms defying the power 
of Congress. 

The election for President transpired just a fortnight before 
the passage of the Ordinance. Jackson was reelected. Mr. 
Calhoun, dropped from the list of candidates, saw his rival, 
Martin Yan Buren, elevated to the Vice Presidency. The 
popular vote stood: Jackson 650,028 ; Henry Clay 550,189 — 
proving the protectionists in the minority, since Clay ran as 
their candidate on the distinct issue of the " American System." 
If the popular voice was any evidence of the nation's feelmg 
and policy, Calhoun's anti-protection views were in the majori- 
ty. But, the nullifiers did not j^ropose to await the issue of 
an election. Having the tariff as a pretext they were not dis- 
posed to accept the tardy terms of a Congressional majority 
Calhoun distrusted Jackson too much to expect anything from 
him except opposition. His avowed reasons for this distrust 
were thus given in a letter lately brought to light, written to 
Edmund Puffin, of Virginia : 

" He (.Jackson) came in, as far as my aid and that of my friends was 
given him, mainly to put down the (protective) system by briuging to 
bear against it the immense patronage in money and power which it 
put into the hands of the Executive ; but, instead of that, he, in fact, 
rested his whole scheme of power on it, while he held out fair words to 



» Democratic Review, April, 1838. 



Jackson's proclamation. 427 

the South. In his two first messages he proi^osed and urged the fatal 
scheme, had it been adopted, of distributing the surplus revenue express- 
ly with the view of perpetuating it, which gave him a strong hold onthe 
tarifi^ interest of the North : thus taking a position which made him 
more acceptable to the North than any Southern individual, and more 
to the South than any Northern, the result was, that, do what h6 
would, the latter would not join to turn him out of oflBce for Webster 
for Clay, or any other tarifi" man, nor the former for any anti-tariff", while 
he wielded the immense power and revenue derived from the system to 
build up a party personal to himself; and hence the spoils party, made 
up by recruits from all sides, and which had no principle but to support 
the authority of its chieftain." 

This attitude of South Carolina created a feeling of uneasi- 
ness among the people at large, influencing the Congressional 
as well as the Presidential election. The majority of Eepre- 
^entatives, returned to Congress, so far feared or endorsed Cal- 
houn's constitutional constructions as to be prepared for con- 
cessions proper to restore peace. They assembled to find a 
State in open rebellion, and proceeded to the work of redress- 
ing alleged grievances. During the first day's session a bill 
was introduced for the reduction of the tariff, and one for a 
similar object soon was reported from the Committee of Ways 
and Means, by its Chairman, Mr. Yerplanck, of New York. This 
was especially designed to conciliate South Carolina. 

Occupying the Presidential chair was a man of nerve — one 
too fearless to shrink from duty, and too loyal to pettifog as to 
the nature of that duty. Andrew Jackson beheld the head of 
treason in Calhoun's movements, and, as treason, he struck at 
it upon the first open act. (' Soon after the Ordinance was pro- 
mulgated the President issued (December 10th) his Proclama- 
mation of warning to those in an attitude of defiance toward 
the General Government, declaring the Ordinance of the State 
Convention subversive of the Federal Constitution, and his in- 
tention to enforce the laws at whatever hazard, and warning 
the people of the State against obedience to the Ordinance as 
involving the crime of treason against the United States. He 
denounced the State Rights idea, as interpreted by those whom 
he characterized as demagogues, to be pernicious, and assumed 
for an evil purpose. He said : " Eloquent appeals to your pas- 

53 



428 THE NULLIFICATION REBELLIOlSr. 

sions, to your State pride, to your native courage, to your sense 
of real injury, were used to prepare you for the period when 
the mask, which concealed the hideous features of disunion, 
should be taken off. It fell, and you were made to look with 
complacency on objects which, not long since, you would have 
regarded with horror." And then added a peroration charac- 
terised both by force and a rhetorical beauty. " Snatch from 
the archives of your State the disorganizing edict of its con- 
vention ; bid its members to reassemble, and promulgate the 
decided expression of your will to remain in the path which 
alone can conduct you to safety, prosperity and honor. Tell 
them that, compared to disunion, all other evils are light, be- 
cause that brings with it an accumulation of all. Declare that 
you will never take the field unless the star spangled banner 
of your country shall float over you ; that you will not be stig- 
matized when dead, and dishonored and scorned while you live, 
as the authors of the first attack on the Constitution of your 
country. Its destroyers you can not be. You may disturb its 
peace ; you may interrupt the course of its prosperity ; you 
may cloud its reputation for stability; but its tranquility will 
be restored, its prosperity will return, and the stains upon its 
national character will be transferred and remain an eternal 
blot on the memory of those who caused the disorder." 

To this proclamation South Carolina responded, through her 
newly elected Governor, ex-Senator Robert Y. Hayne, who 
issued his counter manifesto sustaining the position assumed 
by the State, and calling out twelve thousand militia as volun- 
teers, to maintain the supremacy of the State laws. 

To the seat vacated by Mr. Hayne, in the U. S. Senate, Mr. 
Calhoun was chosen by the Legislature, early in December, 
1832. He at once proceeded to the Capital to take his seat, 
having first resigned his ofiice of Vice President. His course 
now commanded unusual attention. Some even doubted if he 
would take the oath of office, while the known indignation felt 
against him by Jackson, added plausibility to the rumor of 
Calhoun's prospective arrest for high treason. But, no arrest 
was made, and the Senator elect took the qualifying oath with 
all due formality. Morally and physically he was brave. He 



Calhoun's resolutions. 429 

came to "Washington to do liis work; no threats, public or pri- 
vate — no fear of results to himself or the country, deterred him 
from his defense of South Carolina. 

He acted promptly, by soon calling upon the President, 
through a resolution, to lay before the Senate the Ordinance 
of Nullification and accompanying documents, as remitted by 
the Governor of South Carolina. Before action was had, Jack- 
son sent in his message of January 16th, 1833, wherein he* des- 
canted upon the rebellious condition of affairs in the disaffected 
State and recommended the revival of the act of '93 to enforce 
the revenue laws and to crush resistance to the United States' 
authorities. On this message, before action thereon, Mr. Cal- 
houn spoke at considerable length and with much feeling, de- 
fending the course of his constituency and declaring their re- 
solve to sustain their position. When the National Govern- 
ment returned to the principles of '98, he assumed, then would 
he be the last man to abandon that Government. 
■^ In response to the message the Senate Committee on the Ju- 
diciary, of which Mr. Webster was a member, reported a bill 
known as the Force Bill. It answered the President's demand 
for authority to execute the laws, by extending the jurisdiction 
of the Federal Courts in cases arising under the revenue laws, 
and empowering the use of any additional military force neces- 
sary to maintain the peace and the supremacy of the laws. 
This most significant and important act was an overwhelming 
stroke at nullification, which Calhoun manoeuvered to parry 
by the subtleties of his logic. As preliminary to a general 
discussion on the constitutionality of such an act, and with the 
special object of eliciting debate, he introduced a series of res- 
olutions on the Powers of the General Government, as follows: 

" Resolved, That the people of the several States composing these 
United States are united as parties to a constitutional compact, to ■vvhicli 
the people of each State acceded as a separate and sovereign community, 
each binding itself, by its own particular ratification ; and that the Union, 
of M'hich the said compact is the bond, is a union 'between tlio States rati- 
fying the same. 

"Resolved, That the people of the several States, thus united by a 
constitutional compact, in fi^rming that instrument, in creating a General 



480 THE N ULLIFICATION REBELLION". 

Government to carry into effect the objects for -which it was formed, 
delegated to that Government, for that purpose, certain definite powers, 
to be exercised jointly, reserving, at the same time, each State to itself, 
the residuary mass of powers, to be exercised by its own separate gov- 
ernment ; and that, whenever the General Government assumes the exer- 
cise of powers not delegated by the compact, its acts are unauthorized, 
void and of no effect ; and that the said Government is not made the 
final judge of the powers delegated to it, since that would make its dis- 
cretion, and not the Constitution, the measure of its powers; but that, 
as in all other cases of compact among sovereign parties, without any 
common judge, each has an equal right to judge for itself, as well of the 
infraction as of the mode and measure of redress. 

" Resolved, That the assertions, that the people of these United States, 
taken collectively as individuals, are now, or ever have been united on 
the principle of the social compact, and, as such, are now formed into 
one nation or people ; or that they have ever been so united in any one 
stage of their political existence ; or that the people of the several States 
comprising the Union have not, as members thereof, retained their sove- 
reignty ; or that the allegiance of their citizens has been transferred to 
the General Government ; or that they have parted with the right of 
punishing treason through their respective State Governments ; or that 
they have not the right of judging, in the last re&ort, as to the extent 
of the powers reserved, and, of consequence, of those delegated, are not 
only without foundation in truth, but are contrary to the most certain 
and plain historical facts, and the clearest deductions of reason ; and 
that all exercise of power on the part of the General Government, or any 
of its departments, deriving authority from such erroneous assumptions, 
must of necessity be unconstitutional ; must tend directly and inevitably 
to subvert the sovereignty of the States, to destroy the Federal charac- 
ter of the Union, and to rear on its ruins a consolidated government, 
without constitutional check or limitation, and which must necessarily 
terminate in the loss of liberty itself." 

These resolves, it will be perceived, enunciated principles 
which, if endorsed, rendered the Force Bill nugatory. But, as 
significant of the feeling entertained in the Senate, they were 
laid on the table by a seven-eighths vote. Debate then opened 
on the Force Bill, in the course of which Mr. Calhoun deliv- 
ered an effective speech, (Feb. 15th, 1883) of three hours' du- 
ration ; but he avoided a discussion of the principles involved 
in his resolutions, reserving that discussion until Webster should 
first canvass the subject, thus affording his antagonist the van- 
tage ground of a reply. Webster, answering Calhoun (FeU 



WEBSTER'S GREAT SPEECH. 481 

16tli), pioceeded to discuss the whole question on the powers 
of the Government. His speech was a wonderful performance, 
characterized as truly Titanic in its majestic force of argument, 
truly Demosthenian in the mastery of its eloquence. He as- 
sumed the Hamiltonian gi-ound of consolidated principles in- 
volved in the organism of the Union, and maintained that the 
Constitution was the ^'■supreme law of the land," any thing in 
the action of the States to the contrary. The Constitution was 
a " compact," like that of the old Confederation, as argued by 
the State Eights advocates ; but it was more ; after its ratifica- 
tion hy the States it hQQ2Lme fundamental law, supreme to the 
extent of its delegated powers, thus binding all the ratifying 
States into one indivisible whole, and rendering the people in 
the aggregate one nation. It is well to refresh our minds, in 
these days of disquietude, with the great Expounder's opinions 
upon the point around which centres all the interest of a life 
and death struggle. Let us, therefore, quote : " Whether the 
Constitution be a compact between States in their sovereign 
capacity is a question which must be mainly argued from what 
is contained in the instrument itself. We all agree that it is an 
instrument which has been in some way clothed with power. 
We all admit that it speaks with authority. The first question 
then is — What does it say of itself? What does it purport to 
be ? Does it style itself a league, confederacy, or compact be- 
tween sovereign States ? It is to be remembered, that the 
Constitution began to speak only after its adoption. Until it 
was ratified by nine States, it was but a proposal, the mere 
draft of an instrument. It was like a deed drawn but not ex- 
ecuted. The Convention had framed it ; sent it to Congress 
then sitting under the Confederation ; Congress had transmitted 
it to the State Legislatures ; and by the last, it was laid before 
the Conventions of the people in the several States. All this 
while it was inoperative paper. It had received no stamp of 
authority: it spoke nfe language. But, when ratified by the 
people in their respective Conventions, then it had a voice and 
spoke authentically. Every word in it had then received the 
sanction of the popular will, and was to be received as the ex- 
pression of that will What the Constitution says of itself 



432 THE NULLIFICATION KEBELLION. 

therefore, is as conclusive as what it says on any other point 
Does it call itself a ' compact ? ' Certainly not. It uses the wo}-d 
compact but once, and that is, when it declares that the States 
shall enter into no 'compact' Does it call itself a 'league,' a 
'confederacy,' a 'subsisting treaty between the States?' Cer- 
tainly not There is not a particle of such language in all its 
pages ! But, it declares itself a Constitution. "What is a 
Constitution? Certainly not a league, or confederacy, but a 
fundamental laio. That fundamental regulation which deter- 
mines the manner in which the public authority is to be exe- 
cuted, is what forms the Constitution of a State. Those pri- 
mary rules which concern the body itself, and the very being 
of the political society, the form of government and the manner 
in which power is to be exercised — all, in a word, which form 
together the Constitution of a State — these are ' fundamental 
laws.' This is the language of the public writers. But, do we 
need to be informed in this country what a constitution is ? Is 
it not an idea perfectly familiar, definite and well settled ? We 
are at no loss to understand what is meant by the Constitution 
of one of the States — and the Constitution of the United States 
speaks of itself as being an instrument of the same nature. It 
says, this Constitution shall be the law of the land, anything in 
the State Constitutions to the contrary, notwithstanding. And 
speaks of itself, too, in plain contradistinction /row a 'confede- 
ration :' for, it says, all debts contracted, and all engagements 
entered into by the United States, shall be as valid under this 
Constitution as under the Confederation.'' It does not say, as 
valid under this compact^ or this league, or this confederation, 
as under the former confederation, but as valid ' unden- this Con 
stitution.' " 

To this great exposition Mr. Calhoun addressed all the rtj- 
sources of his mind, in his speech, pronounced on a •specidilly 
alloted day (Feb. 26th) after the passage of the Force B?!!. It 
was, therefore, not an argument against that act, hc.t simply 
and solely a reply to Webster on the principles embodied in 
his (Calhoun's) resolutions. Having had time for preparation, 
the South Carolinian delivered what is regarded as his ab]e^st 
effort It was worthy, in every sense, of the occasion. He 



THE FORCE BILL. 433 

met, squarely, every issue presented. Assuming that tlie Con 
stitution was hut a compact, he made such a defense of the 
right of a State, as a State, to sit in judgment on acts of Con- 
gress and to n^ullify them, that, to this day, his logic has weight 
with a large class of thinkers even in the ISTorthern Statea 
Some writers have characterised his logic as " specious ;" bat, 
that is not a term to apply to the great nullificator's effort — it 
was exceedingly open in its enunciation of principles and per- 
fectly direct in its defense of them. There was nothing " spe- 
cious" in it as an argument ; if his theory was amenable to that 
term it was not more so than any theory awaiting acceptance 
as a fact. We concede to Calhoun the strength of his arga- 
ments — the more willingly, now, as we have the painful expe- 
rience of the Secession Revolution to prove that his principles, 
when practically applied, must end in national ruin. The true 
test is practice, or, as essayists have it, " experience is the great 
teacher ;" and, great as were Mr. Webster's efforts to confront 
the evil of Calhoun's philosophy, they will be forgotten in the 
more overwhelming demonstration which three years of civil 
war adduced. That Mr. Calhoun's philosophy was responsible 
for the Secession revolution we conceive to be self-evident. It 
is fair to presume that he would have been its chief director 
had he been alive and in health during the winter of 1860- 
61._ . 

^/^he Force Bill passed in the Senate to its third reading, j 
Feb. 18th, by a vote of 32 to 8-)— the negatives being Calhoun 
\nd Miller, of South Carolina ; King and Moore, of Alabama ; 
Troup, of Georgia; Mangum, of North Carolina; Tyler, of 
Virginia, and Bibb, of Kentucky. Several Senators were ab- 
sentees, to avoid a vote, it was said ; among them wei e Clay 
and Benton. The bill passed the Senate Feb. 20th, by 32 to 1 
— that one being John Tyler. It passed the House Feb. 28th, 
by an overwhelming affirmative vote. It at once received the 
signature of Jackson, and tlius became not only the law of the 
land but a precedent in legislation to which, in all human pro- 
bability, it will be the unwelcome necessity of future legislators 
to evoke. So long as the principles of Nullification and State 
Eights excite antagonisms to Federal authority so long will 



434 THE NULLIFICATION REBELLION. 

there be a necessity for the precedent offered bj the Force Bill 
of 1833/ 

We have adverted to bills offered early in the session, for a 
reduction of the tariff. The increasing excitement and disa- 
greement on the subject, the apparently irreconcileable hostili- 
ty of South Carolina to the principle of protection, and the 
danger menacing Calhoun himself of arrest for treason, all con- 
spired to impel Clay into concessions which virtually abro- 
gated his "American System," by substituting for the tariff 
of 1832 a graduated scale, detracting from the duties one-tenth 
each year upon all articles tariffed over twenty per cent, thus 
gradually reducing the duties until they should strike the free 
list, in December, 1841. That this was a triumph for the nul- 
lificators is not to be denied. The bill was designed as a 
compromise, but conceded most of the premises claimed by 
Mr. Calhoun in regard to the tariff principle. It was a great 
sacrifice to make, immensely involved as the Northern and 
Central States had become in manufactures, and dependent as 
thousands were upon manufacturing enterprise for maintenance. 
But, taking counsel of his fears, and impressed by a sense of 
devotion to the Union, the " great Pacificator" astounded his 
friends and the country by voluntarily abandoning his own 
distinctive system in the moment of its greatest success. This 
momentous abjuration was to stay a collision then impending, 
which must precipitate civil war — at least so Mr. Clay assumed. 

• Mr. Calhoun himself was constrained to endorse, in effect, the necessity of coer- 
cion, in certain cases. In 1843, during the famous Dorr rebellion in Rhode Island, 
Mr. Calhoun, then a member of President Tyler's Cabinet, took decided ground 
against any attempt, on the part of any portion of our people, to redress real or 
fancied wrongs, or to change the institutions of the country by force, saying: 

" The very complication of our system of Government — so many distinct, sove- 
reign and independent States, each with its separate Government, and all united 
under one — is calculated to give force to discussion and agitation never before 
known, and to cause a diffusion of political intelligence heretofore unknown in the 
history of the world, if the Federal Government shall do its duty under the guaran- 
tees of the Constitution by promptly suppressing physical force as an element of change, 
and keeping wide open the door for the full and free action of all the moral ele- 
ments in its favor. No people ever had so fair a start. All that is lacking is, that 
we sliall understand, in all its great and beautiful proportions, the noble political 
Structure reared by the wisdom and patriotism of our ancestors, and to have the 
virtue and the sense to preserve and protect it." 



THE VOTE BY STATES. 



435 



Tlie vote on this important concession was as follows, by States. 
In the House : 



North 
Maine 


Yeas. 


Nays. 

1 

5 
13 

6 

2 
19 

21 

81 

Nays. 


2 

2 
2 

13 


New Hampshire 

Vermont 




Mapsuchusetts 








Rhode Island 




Kew York 


11 


New Jersey 




Pennsylvania 

Ohio .. .... 






2 






Total 

In the Senate : 

North 
Maine 


35 

Teas. 


New Hampshire 

Massachusetts 


2 




Rhode Island 





Vermont 





New York 


1 


New Jersey 


.. .. 1 







Ohio 




Indiana 





Illinois 


1 


Total 


10 



South 
Delaware 


Yeas 


Nays. 


Maryland 


9 





Virginia 


... . 20 


1 


North Carolina 


13 





Georgia 


6 







12 




Tennessee 

Louisiana 


8 

3 





Alabama 


3 













1 





Total 


84 




South 
Delaware 


Yeas. 
. ... 2 


Nays. 



Maryland 












North Carolina 


1 







2 










Kentucky 


2 





Tennessee 












Mississippi 


2 





Alabama. 












2 



Benton, in his " Thirty Years in the U. S. Senate," reveals 
what he terms the secret history of that compromise. The sub- 
stance of this revelation was thus given : ' 

' The relative position of the National Government and South 
Carolina, and of the President of the United States and Mr. 
Calhoun, in the winter of 1833, placed the latter in great per- 
sonal peril, which his friends perceived and tried to avert. 
Among others consulted on the subject by them was Letcher, 
.of Kentucky, Clay's warm personal friend. He knew that 
South Carolina must yield, on some terms, to the authority and 
power of the National Government, and he conceived the idea 
of a compromise by which, in so yielding, she might preserve 
her dignity. He proposed it to Mr. Clay, who, sincerely de- 
siring reconciliation, entertained the idea, and submitted it to 
Webster. The amazing intellectual plummet of the latter had 
fathomed the turbid waters of Nullification far deeper than had 
the brilliant Kentuckian, and he instantly said : " No — it will 

* Not having Benton's volume before us at the moment of preparing this page 
of our article, we are constrained to use Mr, Lossing's version of the story, aa 
given in Harper's Magazine for August, 18G2. 

54 



436 THE NULLIFICATION EEBELLION. 

be yielding great principles to faction. The time has come to 
test the strength of the Constitution and the Government." 
He had heartily supported the Force Bill. Although opposed, 
politically, to the Administration, he had said: "I believe the 
country in considerable danger ; I believe an unlawful combi- 
nation threatens the integrity of the Union. I believe the cri- 
sis calls for a mild, temperate, forbearing, but inflexibly firm 
execution of the laws. And, under this conviction, I give a 
hearty support to this Administration, in all measures which 
I deem to be fair, just and necessary. And in supporting these 
measures I mean to take my fair share of responsibility, to 
support them frankly and fau'ly, without reflections on the 
past and mixing other topics in their discussion." He was ut- 
terly opposed to compromising and temporizing measures with 
a rebellious faction, and told Mr. Clay so ; and from that time 
he was not approached by those who were willing to shield 
conspirators from the sword of justice. 

* Mr. Clay drew up a compromise bill and sent it to Mr. 
Calhoun by Mr, Letcher. Calhoun objected to parts of the 
bill most decidedly, and remarked that if Clay knew the na- 
ture of his objections he would at least modify those portions 
of the bill. Letcher made arrangements for a personal inter- 
view between these eminent Senators, who had not been on 
speaking terms for some time. The imperious Clay demanded 
that it should be at his own room. The imperiled Calhoun 
consented to go there. The meeting was civil but icy. The 
business was immediately entered upon. The principals were 
unyielding, and the conference ended without results. 

Letcher now hastened to the President and sounded him on 
the subject of compromise. "Compromise!" said the stern 
old man, stern only toward wickedness, "I will make no com- 
promise with traitors. I will have no negotiations. I will ex- 
ecute the laws. Calhoun shall be tried for treason, and hang- 
ed if found guilty, if he does not instantly cease his rebellious 
course." Letcher now flew to M'Duffie, Calhoun's ardent 
friend, and alarmed him with a startling picture of the Presi- 
dent's wrath. That night, after he had retired to bed, Letcher 
was aroused by a Senator from Louisiana, who informed him 



SECRET HISTORY. 437 

that Jackson would not allow any more delay, and that Cal- 
houn's arrest might take place any hour. He begged Letcher 
to warn Calhoun of his danger. He did so. He found the 
South Carolinian in bed. He told him of the temper and the 
•ntentions of the President, and the Conspirator was much 
alarmed. 

' Meanwhile Mr. Clay and J. M. Clayton, of Delaware, had 
been in frequent consultations on the subject. Clayton had 
said to Clay, while his bill was lingering in the House, "These 
South Carolinians act very badly, but they are good fellows, 
and it is a pity to let Jackson hang them ;" and advised him 
to get his bill referred to a new committee, and so modify it as 
to make it acceptable to a majority. Clay did so, and Clayton 
exerted all his influence to avert the calamity which hung over 
Calhoun and his friends. He assembled the manufacturers 
who had hurried to the Capital when they heard of the Com- 
promise Bill, to see whether they would not yield something 
for the sake of conciliation and the Union. At a sacrifice of 
their interests, these loyal men did yield, and agreed to with- 
draw all opposition to the bill, and let it pass the Senate, pro- 
viding the nullifiers should vote for certain amendments made 
by the Lower House, as well as for the bill itself. The nulli- 
fiers in committee would not yield. The crisis had arrived 
The gallows was placed before Calhoun's eyes. Clayton ear- 
nestly remonstrated with him. He pointed out the danger, the 
folly, the wickedness of his course ; and notified him that un- 
less the amendments were adopted, and that by the votes of 
himself and political friends, the bill should not pass ; that he 
(Clayton) would move to lay it on the table when it should be 
reported to the Senate, and that he had strength enough in that 
House pledged to do it. " The President will then," he said, 
"be left free to execute the laws in full rigor." His object, he 
told them plainly, was to put them squarely on the record ; to 
make all the nullifiers vote for the amendments and the bill, 
and thus cut them off" from the plea of "unconstitutionality," 
which they would raise if the bill and amendments did not re- 
ceive their votes. Unless they were so bound he knew that 
the present pacification would be only a hollow truce, and that 



438 THE NULLIFICATION REBELLION". 

tliey would make this very measure, probably, a pretense for 
renewing their resistance to what they were pleased to call 
" unconstitutional measures" of the National Government, and 
for resuming their march toward secession and independence. 
He was peremptory with both Clay and Calhoun, and warned 
them that this was a last chance for a compromise. 

' Mr. Clayton was inexorable. Clay and Calhoun agreed to 
the amendments. These with the bill were reported to the 
Senate, All the nuUiiiers voted for the amendments in order, 
until they came to the last, that of home valuation, which was 
so revolting to the great leader of the Conspirators. When 
that came up Calhoun and his friends met it with the most 
violent opposition. It was the last day but one of the session, 
and at a late hour in the day. Finding the nullifiers persist- 
ent in their opposition, Clayton, to their great consternation, 
suddenly executed his threat. He moved to lay the bill on 
the table, and declared it should continue to lie there. Mr. 
Clay begged him to withdraw his motion. Others entreated 
him to give a little more time. He was inflexible. There was 
fluttering in the bevy of nullifiers. Calhoun and his friends 
retired behind the collonade back of the Speaker's chair, over 
which was the portrait of Washington, the great Unionist, and 
there held a brief consultation. It was very brief, for time 
and opportunity were precious. Senator Bibb came from the 
trembling conclave and asked Clayton to give a little more 
time. This was a token of yielding, and he complied. He 
withdrew his motion, but with the declaration that unless the 
measure, in full, was voted for by all the nullifiers he should 
renew it Instantly one of their friends moved an adjournment 
It was carried, and the conspirators went home 

— " to sleep, perchance to dream," 
on their predicament They knew of only one way, and that 
a most thorny one for their pride, still open for their escape. 
They all knew the character of the President, and the reliabil- 
ity of his promises. So they concluded to vote as Mr. Clayton 
demanded, but begged that gentleman to spare Mr. Cal- 
houn the mortification of appearing on the record in favor 
of a measure against which at that very time, and at his 



MILITAKY IN- THE FIELD. 489 

instance, troops were being raised in Soutli Carolina, and be- 
cause of wliicb the politicians of that State were preparing to 
declare her secession from the Union ! Mr. Clayton would not 
yield a jot. Calhoun was the chief of sinners in this matter, 
and he, of all others, must give the world public and recorded 
evidence of penitence, whatever his "mental reservations" 
might be. "Nothing would be conceded," Mr. Clayton said, 
"unless his vote appears in favor of the measure." 

' The Senate met ; the bill was taken up ; and the nullifiers 
and their friends, one after another, yielded their objections on 
various pretenses. At length, when all had voted but Mr. 
Calhoun, he arose, pale and haggard, for he had had a most 
terrific struggle. He declared that he had then to determine 
which way he should vote, and at the termination of his brief 
remarks he gave his vote in the affirmative with the rest. It 
was a bitter pill for that proud man to swallow. The alterna- 
tive presented to him was absolute humiliation or the gallows. 
He chose the former. With that act fell the great Conspirac_j 
to break up the Government of the United States in 1832. 
The violent clamors raised in South Carolina and the Gulf 
States on the appearance of Jackson's Proclamation soon ceas- 
ed. ' The Ordinance of Nullification was repealed, and Nullifier 
JDecame, as it deserved to be, a term of reproach throughout 
most of the Union.' 

All this sounds very much like a story for effect ; but, writ- 
ten by Benton, and published during Jackson's life-time, it doubtr 
less is, in the main, a correct version of the matter. It shows 
that the nullifier had to concede a little to gain much. 
' But, to revert to the " seat of war.'? Governor Hayne's troops 
were put in process of organization. Military pomp and cir- 
cumstance reigned in Charleston. The " fiery heart" of South 
Carolina was ablaze, ready for the crisis. / Throughout every 
section of the State little else was the theme of thought than 
"resistance to tyranny." To all this Jackson offered only the 
silent admonition of Moultrie's guns and Scott's presence. As 
early as October, 1832, the watchful eye of the President had 
detected the gathering cloud in the South, and then took steps 
to place the Charleston forts in a condition of security from 



440 THE NULLIFICATION EEBELLION. 

seizure. The order issued to Major Heileman (October 29t"h) 
read : ' 

" It IS deemed necessary that the officers in the harbor of Charleston 
should be advised of the possibility of attempts being made to surprise, 
seize and occupy the forts committed to them. You are therefore espe- 
cially charged to use your utmost vigilance in counteracting such at- 
tempts. You will call personally on the commanders of Castle Pinckney 
and Fort Moultrie, and instruct them to be vigilant to prevent surprise 
in the night, or by day, on the part of any set of people whatever, who 
may approach the forts with a view to seize and occupy them. You 
will warn the said officers that such an event is apprehended, and that 
they will be held responsible for the defense, to the last extremity, of 
the forts and garrisons under their respective commands^ against any 
assault, and also against intrigue and surprise. The attempt to surprise 
the forts and garrisons, it is expected, will be made by the militia, and 
it must be guarded against by constant vigilance, and repulsed at every 
hazard. These instructions you will be careful not to show to any per- 
sons, other than the commanding officers of Castle Pinckney and Fort 
Moultrie." 

On the 7th of November two companies of artillery were or- 
dered to proceed forthwith to Fort Moultrie, On the 12th a 
further order to Major Heileman directed the "citadel" in 
Charleston, belonging to the State, to be delivered up, with the 
State arms, if required, though any attack was to be resisted. 
On the 18th a confidential order, issued to General Scott, indi- 
cated the President's alarm at the approaching act of resistance. 
We quote from it : 

"The possibility of such a measure furnishes sufficient reason for 
guarding against it, and the President is therefore anxious that the sit- 
uation and means of defense of these fortifications, should be inspected 
by an officer of experience, who could also estimate and provide for any 
dangers to which they may be exposed. He has full confidence in your 
judgment and discretion, and it is his wish that you repair immediately 
to Charleston, and examine every thing connected with the fortifications. 
You are at liberty to take such measures, either by strengthening these 
defenses, or by reenforcing these garrisons with troops drawn from any 
other posts, as you may think prudence and a just precaution require. 

" Your duty will be one of great importance, and of great delicacy. 
You will consult fully and freely with the collector of the port of Charles- 
ton, and with the district attorney of South Carolina, and you will take 
no step, except what relates to the immediate defense and security of 

* Niles' Register, vol. 43, page 436. 



GENERAL SCOTT'S OPEEATIONS. 441 

the posts, without their order and concurrence. The execution of the 
laws will be enforced through the civil authority, and by the mode 
pointed out by the acts of Congress. Should, unfortunately, a crisis 
arise, when the ordinary power in the hands of the civil officers shall 
not be sufficient for this purpose, the President shall determine the 
course to be taken and the measures adopted. Till, therefore, you are 
otherwise instructed, you will act in obedience to the legal requisitioua 
of the proper civil officers of the United States. 

" I will thank you to communicate to me, freely and confidentially, 
upon every topic which you may deem it important for the Government 
to receive information." 

This emanated from General Lewis Cass, then Secretary of 
War. / Acting under it, and also of verbal instructions given 
by the President, Scott proceeded to Charleston, arriving there 
two days after the passage of the Ordinance. All was excite- 
ment, but the representation that Scott was making his annual 
tour of inspection of fortresses and arsenals, served to shield 
his presence from suspicion. He was enabled to execute his 
mission, without at all exciting the attention of the State au- 
thorities, or provoking the temper of an exasperated populace. 
He passed on to Augusta and secretly placed the arsenal there 
in order of defense. The fortifications of Savannah were also 
quietly reenforced to a state of complete security. This ac- 
complished he returned to Charleston, where a number of 
armed vessels seemed to drop in ly accident These were so 
disposed as to act promptly in event of emergency. It was 
determined by the Collector and District Attorney to collect 
the revenue under the guns of Fort Moultrie, should Governor 
Hayne, after February 1st, attempt to nullify the laws. 

Every thing being thus admirably prepared to enforce the 
collection of the duties, Scott sailed for New York where 
such other steps were taken as were necessary to insure exten- 
sive reenforcements of both army and navy if they should be 
required. Of course the public, generally, knew nothing of 
these movements : the newspapers of that day were not so " en- 
terprising" as to pry into the most important secrets of Govern- 
ment, and to publish all they knew and a little more, by ad- 
ding surmises to facts, to the great detriment of their country. 
Consequently, Scott again sailed (late in January, 1833) to 



442 THE NULLIFICATION REBELLION. 

Charleston harbor unheralded, and was in Fort Moultrie for a 
number of days ere the Charlestonians themselves knew of his 
presence. Then thej first awakened to a realizing sense 
of their condition : there ivere means, at tlie disposal of the 
Federal officers, for enforcing the laws, and Scott was to be the 
instrument of such enforcement. 

The nullifiers were extremely angered at this state of affairs, 
while the Unionists — a strong and powerful party — were de- 
lighted. The latter had been somewhat overawed by the vio- 
lence of the nullifiers, whose party comprised all the worst ele- 
ments and some of the best elements of the State ; but, now 
that the Government, to which they owed their first allegiance, 
had shown its ability and willingness to protect them, the law 
and order men came out boldly for the Union and the laws. 
This threw new force into the excitement, and, before February 
1st, the people were waging among themselves a storm of fac- 
tions which, for a while, threatened bloodshed and all the hor- 
rors of civil strife. ^ 

During this internecine war the United States officers and 
troops were extremely cautious not to give cause for any out- 
bursts of violence toward them, on the part of the excited nul- 
lifiers. They treated all courteously, and, even rendered such 
implicit obedience to orders as not to resent indignities fre- 
quently offered them in the streets, and on the waters of the 
harbor. 

The 1st of February came, when the belligerents thought it 
'prudent to "wait a little longer" before inaugurating the war 
with Government, and a few of the leading nullifiers of Charles- 
ton, therefore, assembled, just before the 1st of February, to 
agr«e not to enforce the said " ordinance," passed by convention 
of the whole State, until after the adjournment of Congress 
(March 3d). So effectually was the whole movement of resist- 
ance to authority in tlie hands of a few men. 

Scott played a most delicate and important part in this mat- 
ter, for with him really rested the issue of peace or blood. One 
injudicious act — one hasty word — one failure to take advantage 
of every opportunity offered for pacification — might have pro- 
ven fatal to all compromise or adjustment exce^^t at the bayo- 



THE REBELLION A FAILURE. 443 

net's point. The Government chose most wisely in sending 
him thither, and the country has ever felt that his wisdom and 
prudence averted a conflict between the State and the General 
Government which must have cost all parties dearly. 

Alas, that the same wisdom and prudence had not been per- 
mitted the control of affairs in 1860 ! 

The fact that a few men in Charleston should temporarily 
suspend the Ordinance was significant of the popular feeling 
against it, in defiance of the overwhelming voice for the Con- 
vention. And other acts proved that the Calhoun party, 
tliough it had obtained the ascendancy, did not control the 
current, for a great length of time. Thus the Ordinance re- 
quired citizens of South Carolina to take a test oath of alle- 
giance to the State. This the State Court of Appeals soon set 
aside' as unconstitutional and void because inconsistent with 
the allegiance of the citizen to the Federal Government. In 
Greenville district the Union party was in the ascendant and 
bad resolved that the Ordinance must be enforced at the bay- 
onet's point before they would submit to it. Pettigru, Colonel 
Drayton, and Poinsett led the Union clubs, which, during Jan- 
uary, became so powerful as to intimidate the nullifiers more 
than Scott's troopers could have done. It was apparent to 
South Carolinians by Feb. 1st, that the Ordinance was explod- 
ed without any action on the part of Congress, and the resolve 
of a few citizens of Charleston not to enforce the mandate of 
insurrection and rebellion simply was an unauthorized but ne- 
cessary effort to save nullification from utter default by reason 
of its non-appearance at the summons ! 

Circumstances conspired auspiciously, however, to help the 
" fire eaters" out of their ridiculous dilemma. Virginia, al- 
though in the heat of her patriotic zeal for " Southern institi> 
tions" she had resolved (in December) to sustain South Caro- 
lina, in January resolved differently, by adopting a series of 
resolutions," for pacification, one of which requested South Caro- 
lina to rescind her Ordinance of Nullification ; another request- 
ed Congress to modify the tariff, and a third appointed a cora- 

» See 2 Hill's South Carolina Reports, i. Stale vs. Hunt. 
• See Niles' Register, vol. 43, page 396. 

65 



444 THE NULLIFICATION KEBELLION. 

missioner to proceed to South Carolina to use his influence for 
conciliation and adjustment. This commissioner, Benjamin 
W. Leigh, reached Charleston early in February, when the 
nullifiers were looking most anxiously for some honorable es- 
cape from their dilemma. The commissioner was welcomed 
as a friend. Ex-Governor Hamilton reassembled the Conven- 
tion, and it was resolved to accept of Yirginia's overtures if 
Congress should abate the revenue — a result so likely to occur 
that public excitement, even among the most ardent nullifiers, 
waned rapidly, and the Convention held its informal sessions 
in Columbia to await the final action of Congress before ad- 
journment, March 3d. 

Mr. Calhoun at the very moment of adjournment started in 
haste for Columbia. Travelling night and day by the most 
rapid modes of conveyance, he reached the State Capital to 
find the Convention calmly awaiting their leader's coming. 
He bore with him the Compromise Act, which the Convention 
adopted, with a sense of relief, as an honorable adjustment 
of differences ; the Ordinance was rescinded ; the militia were 
disbanded ; the blue cockade and palmetto button disappeared ; 
and peace once again settled within Carolina's fair domain. 



THE "PATRIOT" WAR. 



The "Patriot" war is still fresh in the memory of thousands 
living along the northern frontier. Originating, like most rev- 
olutions, in the fertile brains of uneasy spirits, it at one time 
threatened to embroil this Government in serious trouble with 
Great Britain. The yoke of the English crown never has rest- 
ed easily upon the French inhabitants of the Canadas. They 
are, almost without exception, rigid Roman Catholics — the 
English are Protestant : they are purely Gallic in blood — the 
English are Anglo-Saxon with a strong admixture of the stern 
Scotch element : they are clannish, uncompromising, unloyal 
— the English, equally sectional and obstinate, are loyal to tLeir 
Queen to the last. It is not strange that such negatives should 
not assimilate, and it is not a matter of surprise that the French, 
in Lower Canada, should hatch revolt. 

The movement took shape late in 1837, and then broke out 
into open insurrection. The Canadians in Upper Canada soon 
caught the infection. The cry of " Freedom and a Confederacy 
of our own" flew from Quebec to the Georgian wilds. It cross- 
ed the frontier to arouse enthusiasm and sympathy. Let the 
rallying cry only be " Liberty ! " and our American population 
would co-operate in a scheme for invading Siberia, if a leader 
could be found for such a frigid service. The cry of " Freedom 
for the Canadas from British domination," awakened the echoes 
" Aye ! " from thousands on this side of the line, and it was not 
long before arms, provisions, troops and means were passing 
over the border in aid of the insurgents, who were gathered in 



446 THE PATRIOT WAR. 

miicli strength, at several points, along the soutliern shore of 
the Lakes. Co-operation became open and undisguised, so 
much so that the President issued a proclamation for order and 
neutrality. It fell upon ears deadened to authority — "patriot- 
ism" was superior to the claims of law and order. 

Late in December (1837) one Van Eensselaer organized a 
troop of " patriots," and passing from Schlosser over to Navy 
Island (British territory) in the Niagara river, occupied it The 
steamer Caroline was engaged to transport troops, provisions, 
etc., to the island, from Schlosser. This movement induced 
the British to make a descent on the steamer — thus to cut off 
Van Eensselaer's supplies. Unfortunately they acted unad- 
visedly, for they entered upon American territory to effect their 
purpose. The Caroline was found at the dock in Schlosser, 
loaded with a mass of curiosity seekers and a few patriots. 
The crowd was unarmed, and little resistance was offered save 
by fists and billets of wood. One citizen was killed and eight 
wounded in the melee. Clearing the steamer of her company, 
she was cut loose and sent over the Falls (Dec. 27th). 

This act excited the entire country, for, beyond doubt, it was 
a causus belli News of the event reached Washington in a few 
days, when Major-General Scott was ordered to the frontier to 
repress trespass from our side, and prevent further aggressions 
of the British authorities, while our Government took immedi- 
ate steps to demand atonement of Great Britain for the outrage 
on the Caroline. He hastened to the Niagara frontier accom- 
panied by Governor Marcy, of New York, by whom volunteers 
were furnished for any emergency which might arise. Scott 
determined to act to the fullest extent of his authority in sup- 
pressing American co-operation with the revolutionists. His 
sudden appearance on the scene caused considerable stir among 
the " patriots," who soon became painfully aware of their lia- 
bility to arrest and imprisonment. In consequence, their move- 
ments were considerably restricted, and the spring of the year 
1838 found them disorganized and powerless. 

Immediately after the affair of the Caroline, British troops 
gathered in considerable force, opposite the western end of Navy 
Island, where three armed schooners were also anchored, to 



MOVEMENTS OF GENERAL SCOTT. 447 

intercept the passage up tlie river of tlie steamer Barcelona. 
This steamer had been taken from Buffalo down to Schlosser 
for the use of the forces still on Navy Island. Scott had, how- 
ever, forestalled the " patriots," by chartering her before they 
could arrange to indemnify her owners from loss. He imme- 
diately ordered her to return to Buffalo, at the same time ad- 
vising the British commander that he should instantly repel 
any attack made in American waters upon our vessels or citi- 
zens. The little steamer came up (January 16th), in the Amer- 
ican channel of the river. Scott had anchored a battery oppo- 
site the Canadian encampment, prepared to open fire the moment 
the British should throw a ball at the Barcelona. This deter- 
mined action caused them to let the steamer pass, although 
fires were lit and matches were ready for the bombardment, on 
both sides. 

The day previous (January 15th) Yan Eensselaer and his 
troop of a few gentlemen and many vagabonds, had recrossed 
from the island to the American shore, where they were arrest- 
ed by the U. S. Marshal. 

During the winter Scott was tireless in his efforts to appease 
popular excitement along the frontier, and to prevent infrac- 
tions of the neutrality laws. He had to co-operate with him 
Generals Brady, Wool, Worth and Eustis, who were placed in 
charge of special sections of the border, while he passed to and 
fro along the entire line, from Detroit to Vermont, exercising 
his authority, unaided by troops, against a populace determined 
upon giving aid and comfort to the Canadians. His exertions 
were crowned with success, so far as to save the Americans 
from actual trespass. By April the British authorities succeed- 
ed in suppressing the revolt for the moment. 

Scott acted throughout with great prudence and wisdom, 
and was freely complimented for his services. Probably no 
other man in America could have stayed, so effectually, the 
rush to arms on this side of the border — an act which, if it had 
not been repressed, would have involved the United States in 
a war with the British crown. His great personal popularity, 
his tireless vigilance, his numberless speeches, his firmness and 
unconquerable will bore all before him ; and the revolution in 



448 THE PATRIOT WAR. 

Canada was paralyzed as mucli from want of co-operation on 
this side of the Niagara and the Lakes as from the determined 
action of the British Government in suppressing the rebellion 
by force of arms and by banishing the leaders of the movement 
to Van Dieman's Land. 



DORR'S REBELIION, 



This merely local "Eebellion" deserves mention rather from 
its peculiar nature than from its importance. Its circumstances 
were as follows : 

Down to 1833 the government of Ehode Island was based 
upon the original charter of settlement, granted by Charles IL 
in 1663, by which the elective franchise was restricted to per- 
sons possessed of real estate to a specified amount, and to their 
eldest sons. This disfranchised fully two thirds of the actual 
citizens. Yet, so prevalent were old prejudices, so powerful 
old associations, that the Legislature steadily refused to substi- 
tute a more modern and republican constitution for the old, 
but simple and strong government of the Charter. Thomas 
W. Dorr, an attorney at law, of Providence, and a member of 
the Assembly, sought to introduce a reform ; but, for a long 
time labored in vain. When brought to a vote his proposition 
for a change obtained only seven out of seventy votes. Not 
to be thwarted, Dorr then appealed to the people, agitating the 
question of change and reform in several mass conventions, 
held in 1840-41. When the movement had gained sufficient 
strength, a Convention of Delegates was called, which prepared 
a State Constitution to be submitted to a regular vote of the 
people. It obtained 14,000 votes — said to have been a clear 
majority of the regular citizens of the State. The Chartists 
pronounced the entire proceedings seditious and declared the 
vote, illegal as it was, to have been largely fraudulent. Dorr 
decided otherwise; and, with true Puritan pertinacity, pro- 
claimed the Constitution to be the law of the State. He or- 
dered, accordingly, an election to be held for State officers. 

Dorr was chosen Governor, and a Legislature composed ex- 



450 dorr's rebellion. 

clusively of his supporters, was elected, to meet at Providence 
on the first Monday of May, 1842. The Charter party also 
held an election for State oflicers, polling 5,700 votes, while 
the suffrage party claimed to have polled 7,800. 

On the 3d of May, Dorr's Government attempted to organ- 
ize at Providence and seize the reins of power. They were 
resisted by the legal State Government, which assembled at 
Newport on the same day, and at the head of which was Gov- 
ernor Samuel .W. King. Both sides appealed to arms. The 
excitement was intense, and the people flocked to the respect- 
ive standards in large numbers from various New England 
States. Governor King proclaimed the State under martial 
law, called out the militia and asked and obtained the aid of 
the United States to suppress the treason. On the 13th of 
May a portion of the Suffrage party assembled at Providence 
under arms and attempted to seize the arsenal, but were dis- 
persed by Governor King and a military force. They assem- 
bled again, to the number of several hundred. May 25th, 1842, 
at Chepachet Hill, ten miles from Providence, but again dis- 
persed on the approach of the State forces. Three days after- 
wards the affair was over. Dorr fled from the State, and took 
refuge first in Connecticut, and then in New Hampshire. A 
reward of $4000 being offered for his apprehension by Rhode 
Island, he voluntarily returned home, was tried, convicted of 
high treason, and sentenced to imprisonment for life. In 1847 
he was pardoned, and, in 1852, the Legislature restored him to 
his civil rights, and ordered the record of his sentence to be 
expunged. He lived to see a liberal constitution and his par- 
ty in possession of the reins of government 



THE KANSAS-NEBRASKA STRUGGLE. 



The early history of the "Western States is full of tragedies, 
but that of Kansas is, literally written in blood. The war of 
sections which raged within her lines during her territorial 
term, and the commingled outrage, crime and political wrong 
through which she passed to attain her present position in 
the Union have conspired to render her very name synony 
mous with violence. 

To understand fully the nature of the matter it will be neces- 
sary to revert to the first legislation affecting her destiny — the 
Compromise act of 1820. 

In 1818 the territory of Missouri, comprising the Northern 
portion of what was the old French-Spanish domain of Louisi- 
ana, came forward with a constitution for admission to the 
Union as a State. Louisiana, running from the Gulf to as far 
north as the undefined lines of the'great " North West Terri- 
tory," was purchased from France in 1803, not more to com- 
mand the entire course of the Mississippi river than to add to 
the Slave States new territory, by which to preserve their 
" balance of power" in the Union — by which simply was meant 
the ascendancy of Slave States in the Congress and the per- 
petuation of their control exercised over the Executive chair.' 

* It is, as Mr. Everett has stated : " Out of seventy-two years (up to the date of 
Mr. Lincoln's election) since the organization of this Government the Executive 
chair has, for sixty-four years, been filled nearly all the time by Southern Presi- 
dents, or when not by Southern men, by those possessing the confidence of the 
South. For a still longer period the controlling influences of the Legislative and 
Judicial Departments of the Government have centered in the same quarter. Of 
all the ofiSces in the gift of the central power, in every department, far more than 
hat proportionate share has always been enjoyed by the South." 

5Q 



462 THE KANSAS-NEBRASKA STRUGGLE.'' 

As slavery existed in the Frencli domain it was witti some as- 
tonishment that Southern men beheld any opposition to 
the admission of Missouri because of a slave clause in her con- 
stitution. Her admission was opposed for the reason that the 
act would amount to a recognition of the right of slave exten- 
sion over the Territories of the United States. The anti-Slave 
States and element had resolved to grant no further " rights" 
in the matter — holding that slavery was a wrong not to be ex- 
tended. The South, equally determined, resolved the State 
should have Slavery if it wanted it, thereby assuming that po- 
sition which it ever after persistently maintained — of a Slave 
right in the Territories. The issue, thus squarely presented, 
was met in the House of Representatives by a bill (introduced, 
Feb. 1819, by Mr. Tallmadge, of New York,) prohibiting Sla- 
very, " except for the punishment of crimes ; and that all chil- 
dren born in the said State after the admission thereof into the 
Union, shall be free at the age of twenty-five years." This 
passed the House, but was lost in the Senate. For eighteen 
months the discussion was continued in both branches of Con- 
gress V7ith great ability, and not withouf great excitement, 
which extended to every section of the Union, 

On the one hand, it was contended that the ordinance of 
1787, which excluded Slavery from all territory north-west of 
the river Ohio, was a public recognition of the principles of 
the people of the United States in regard to the establishment 
of Slavery in new States and Territories in that region, and 
that the proposal to establish it in Missouri was a direct viola- 
tion of those fundamental principles. On the other hand, it 
was urged that Slavery was incorporated in the system of so- 
ciety when Louisiana was purchased from the French ; and 
that, as the faith of the United States was pledged by treaty to 
all the inhabitants of that wide domain to maintain their rights 
and privileges on the same footing with the people of the rest 
of the country, it would be a violation of tliat faith and those 
rights to abolish the institution of Slavery without their 
consent 

The storm of words and passion which followed baffles de- 
scription. It was the South struggling for supremacy agains* 



A NORTHERN CHALLENGE. 453 

a Nortli already mucli the stronger. Threats were freely ut- 
tered of a dissevered Union. Tallmadge, as the leader of his 
section, dauntlessly replied : 

" Sir, lias it already come to this : that in the Congress of the United 
States — that, in the Legislative councils of Kepublican America, the 
subject of slavery has become a subject of so much feeling — of such deli- 
cacy — of such danger that it cannot safely be discussed ? Are members 
who venture to express their sentiments on this subject, to be accused 

tf talking to the galleries, with intention to excite a sei'vile war; and 
f meriting the fate of Arbuthnot and Ambrister ? Are we to be told 
pf the dissolution of the Union, of civil war and of seas of blood ? 

" Sir, extend your view across the Mississijipi, over your newly acquir- 
ed Territory — a Territory so far surpassing in extent, the limits of your 
present country, that country which gave birth to your nation — which 
Achieved your Revolution — consolidated your Union — formed your Con- 
jtitution, and has subsequently acquired so much glory, hangs but as an 
^pendage to the extended empire over which your Republican Govern- 
heut is now called to bear sway. Look down the long vista of futurity ; 
^e your empire, in extent unequaled, in advantageous situation without 
s parallel, and occupying all the valuable part of one continent. Be- 
lold this extended empire, inhabited by the hardy sons of American 
leemen, knowing their rights, and inheriting the will to protect thera — 
(Jsvners of the soil on which they live, and interested in the institutions 
■\ihich they labor to defend ; with two oceans laving your shores, and ■ 
tibutary to your purposes, bearing on their bosoms the commerce of 
qir people ; compared to yours, the governments of Europe dwindle into 
ijsigniflcance, and the whole world is without a parallel. But, sir, re- 
■y^rse this scene ; people this fair domain with the slaves of your plant- 
extend Slavery, this bane of man, this abomination of heaven, over 
ur extended empire, and you prepare its dissolution; you turn its 
cumulated strength into positive weasness; you cherish a canker in 
ur breast ; you put poison in your own bosom ; you place a vulture 
eying on your own heart — nay, you whet the dagger, and place it in 
tie hands of a portion of your population, stimulated to use it by every 
ti, human and divine. The envious contrast between your happiness 
ajd their misery, between your liberty and their slavery, must constant- 
ly prompt them to accomplish your destruction. Your enemies will 
l4rn the source and the cause of your weakness. As often as external 
dtogers shall threaten, or internal commotions await you, you will then 
relize that, by your own procurement, you have planted amidst your 
faailies, and in the bosom of your country, a population producing at 
otte the greatest cause of individual danger, and of national weakness. 
Wth this defect, your Government must crumble to pieces, and your 
peipie become the scoff of the world." 



454 THE KANSAS-NEBRASKA STRUGGLE. 

This illustrates the spirit which, at that day, swayed the 
hearts of the people of both sections. On the part of the South 
were extreme violence of threat and vituperation ; on the part 
of the North a resolve neither to be cajoled nor bullied into a 
recognition of the right of Slavery extension. 

This struggle was revived at the next session of Congress — 
debates during December 1819 and January 1820 being verj 
acrimonious, with no prospect of agreement. Mr. Thomas, of 
Illinois, then came forward with a ' compromise' measure, pro- 
posing to admit Missouri as a Slave State, but, as compensa- 
tion to the North therefor, to exclude the institution foreve*, 
north of the parallel of 36° 80'. The act contained this sectior: 

" That in all that Territory ceded by France to the United States ui- 
der the name of Louisiana, which lies north of thirty-six degrees thiry 
minutes north latitude, excepting only such part thereof as is includid 
within the limits of the State contemplated by this act, Slavery and ii 
voluntary servitude, otherwise than in the punishment of crime whea 
of the party shall have been duly convicted, shall be and is herely 
forever prohibited." 

This was acquiesced in by the Free State members, after a 
further resistance, as a settlement of the vexed question ; aid 
it was supposed, on all sides, that there would be no ma-e 
agitation in regard to Slavery. The act gave up to Slavey 
the region,, now embraced in Arkansas, which, in 1836, wis 
admitted as a Slave State without a word of demur because 
the act of 1820 had settled the matter forever. A second ex 
citement occurred when, in November, 1820, the State Consi 
tution of Missouri was presented for approval. It containd, 
among other clauses, one preventing the emigration to tie 
State, for residence or settlement, of free men of color. T.is 
exclusion was offensive to those States wherein colored m-n, 
under various qualifications, had obtained rights of citizenshp. 
The statute provision, therefore, amounted to a prohibition or 
citizens of certain States to enter the limits of Missouri. Tiis 
fire-brand was extinguished by Henry Clay, who interposel a 
kind of straw compromise — exacting of the Missouri Legila- 
ture a pledge that " no advantage should be taken of its On- 
stitution" ! and that it should pass no act 'to exclude an} of 
the citizens of either of the States' from the enjoyment of the 



SOUTHERN EXPANSION. 455 

privileges they enjoy under tlie Constitution of the United 
States.' * This most remarkable, and, in many respects, prepos- 
terous collocation of words, was accepted by members enough 
to constitute a majority, and thus Missouri came into the Union. 
The vote was : in the House, 86 to 82 ; in the Senate, 28 to 14. 

State by State had been added to the South to retain its 
balance of power and to maintain its supremacy, at least in the 
Senate. Kentucky was ceded by Virginia to " independence" 
in order to make an additional Slave State. Alabama and 
Mississippi were purchased from the Indians and Georgia [see 
page 391] for the same express purpose ; Tennessee was set 
off from North Carolina that the same result might follow ; 
then Louisiana was secured, and admitted ; after the severe 
struggle of 1820-21, she succeeded in contributing two more 
States to the Slave section ; then the Florida swamps and la- 
gunes were absorbed and purchased from Spain to add its quo- 
ta of two slave members to the United States Senate. 

But, in spite of these enormous accessions, the South was 
doomed to a minority in Congress unless more Slave States 
could be secured. The steady prosperity and rapid develope- 
nient of the Free States threatened to overcome this territorial 
aggrandisement of the Slave section by the mere force of pre- 
ponderating masses, and the census of 1840 came, with its 
startling array of figures, like a hand writing on the wall to 
" Southern institutions." What remained for the South but 
final abjuration of its minority rule ? More territory must be 
secured or all was lost. To the North the Slave owners could 
not go, since Jefferson's beneficent act of 1798 prohibited them 
from the entire North-west Territory, and the sentiment of the 

* What " rights" did the black man then " enjoy under the Constitution" ? If 
he enjoyed any " right" how could Missouri deprive him of it ? Therefore the 
preposterous character of the " compromise." The other features of the compro- 
mise — & pledge that the Legislature should not take advantage of its own Oonstitulion 
was, in law, an absurdity. What had the Legislature to do with its State Constitu- 
tion ? A provision to exclude negroes could be enforced by any petty oflBcer or 
citizen, and the Legislature could not help itself! That this " compromise" satis- 
fied a majority proves how easily some men's scruples are put at rest. The com- 
promise introduced by Mr. Thomas was understood to have emanated from Mr. 
Clay. It was worthy the name of ' compromise' ; byt, the last arrant^ement to 
overcome an objection may truly be characterised as absurd. 



456 THE KANSAS-NEBRASKA STRUGGLE. 

people there was extremely hostile to a slave system. To the 
West they could not proceed, for Government had pledged 
that section to the Indians. Conquest alone must come to the 
rescue. Texas, an immense domain, fitted to make five States, 
must be won. The scheme of its " annexation" was soon con- 
ceived and perfected. War was declared upon a flimsy pre- 
text against a weak and distracted neighbor. One hundred 
millions of dollars were spent, and Texas was given over to the 
Slave power to be made into States, as emergencies should re- 
quire ; while New Mexico, with her boundless plains, lay to 
the west, to await the necessity for her introduction to a slave 
proprietary. 

But, even this absorption of an empire did not suffice. The 
census of 1850 again sent consternation into the " balance of 
power" ranks, and excited their leaders to renewed zeal. More 
territory rrmst be had, at any sacrifice. Kansas and Nebraska 
alone offered the soil, but there stood that Gibraltar, the " Com- 
promise Act" of 1821, guaranteeing all that region to Freedom 
FOREVER. Still, the emergency was imperative. Kansas at 
least must be represented on the floors of Congress by a slave 
delegation. The tremendous expansion of the North, in Iowa, 
Wisconsin, Michigan and Minnesota, threatened, by its astonish- 
ing vigor, to leap at once into an uncontrolled majority. Kansas 
lost, all was lost, since Texas could not, for years, gain popu- 
lation enough to allow of her subdivision into several States. 
The scheme was, hence, matured for the repeal of the Compro- 
mise Act. The ground to be taken was first, its unconstitu- 
tionality, despite its acceptance by a Southern ' Democratic' 
President and the endorsement by his Cabinet ; second, its 
non-recognition of the right of the South in the Territories ; 
third, the right of the people of a Territory to make their own 
laws and to choose their own institutions. The sole intent of 
the South, in abrogating the Compromise, was territorial ag- 
grandisement, thus to preserve its superiority in the Senate ;' 

* The fortunes of war placed the country in possession of many letters and doc- 
uments which the Southern leaders doubtless never designed should have publicity. 
We have had occasion already to quote from several of such " closet confessions." 
In a letter written by Mr. Toombs, of Georgia, dated Washington, May 21st, 1858, 



STEPHEN A. DOUGLAS. 457 

bat, to render a repeal of a time-honored contract palatable, 
some poiyular issue was necessary — some plea to commend it 
to the masses and thus to control them at the ballot box. This 
was found in the idea of " Squatter Sovereignty'' — the right 
of the people of a Territory to choose their own institutions — 
slaves, polygamy or whatever might be to their taste. W ith 
this the question of repeal was sprung upon Congress — U. S. 
Senator Stephen A. Douglas, as Chairman of the Committee 
on Territories, becoming sponsor for the new child of politics. 
One of Mr. Douglas' biographers disclaims for the Illinois 
Senator the credit or discredit of originality for the measure. 
He says : " Though Mr. Douglas has gained all the credit and 
all the opprobrium of the ' Nebraska Bill,' and to a great ex- 
tent his name is more prominently associated with that, than 
with any previous act of public interest, the truth is, that the 
Kansas-Nebraska Act and its repeal of the Missouri restriction 
was not an original measure. It was but a second volume in 
the history of the struggle for popular right, commenced in the 
contest over the Compromise of 1850 ; it was but another act 
in the grand drama which in 1850 had ended with a full recog- 
nition of the freedom of the American people, whether in State 
or Territory, to regulate their own domestic relations without 
interference by Congress. /The Kansas-Nebraska Act was no- 
thing more nor less than an act to extend to the people of Kan- 
sas and Nebraska the same rights and privileges which, in 1850, - 

occurs this passage : " When the results of the-Mexican war brought us new terri- 
tory, and undoubtedly what is called ' free territory,' the North asserted and en- 
deavored to maintain the right to exclude slavery therefrom by act of Congress, 
called sometimes ' the Ordinance of 1787,' at others, ' Missouri Restrictions.or Com- 
promise,' and again, ' the Wilmot Proviso.' Under all these names the substance 
was the same — i. e., the prohibition of slavery in the Territories. TJie wliolc whig 
party of the North and all of the democrats, except about half a dozen, held this 
doctrine ten years ago ; and as late as the opening of the sessions of 1849-50, a 
large majority of the House of Representatives held it. In 1850 we only defeated 
the application of the principle of prohibition to the new Territories while tiiey 
continued in their territorial condition, and maintained the doctrine that when tiiey 
came into the Union they might come in with or without slavery, as their constitu- 
tions might prescribe. In 1854 we advanced a step further, and repealed the pro- 
hibition in all the liOuisiana purchase lying north of 30 degrees 30 minutes north 
latitude, while in a territorial state; reaffirmed the principle of 1850 ao to State 
constitutions." 



458 THE KANSAS-NEBRASKA STRUGGLE. 

/by the advice, by tlie aid and support of the patriot, Henry \ 
I Clay, had been extended to the people of Utah and NewJ 
I Mexico/'] Yet the biographer confesses the Senator's respon- 
sibility of authorship, saying: "Whatever question or doubt 
may have existed or may now exist as to the authorship of the 
Compromise Acts of 1850 respecting the Territories, there is 
not the slightest question as to where the responsibility — the 
honor or blame, the credit or odium — for the Kansas-Nebraska 
Act, belongs. No one has denied that to Stephen A. Douglas 
belongs whatever fame that justly attaches to an act of legis- 
lation, which has been more celebrated (for the censure by its 
enemies, and praise by its friends) than any act of Congress 
since the foundation of the Grovernment. During its pendency 
it was used as a pretext by the fanatics of the North 
for the wildest exhibition of ungovernable fury. It drew 
upon its author the most unbounded abuse and denunciation ; 
while it was pending in Congress a storm, such as has never 
been known in the political annals of the country was gather- 
ing, and it broke with all its force upon his head. Undismay- 
ed by threats, he followed the chart that he had laid down, 
and has lived to see himself the political hero and leader of his 
own party in all those States where the storm beat fastest and 
raged the fiercest." 

The picture here presented, of the excitement which grew 
out of the measure, is not overdrawn. Its remembrance is still 
vividly fresh in our minds. We can hardly class it among the 
things of the past, since it seems, by some scarcely definable 
process, to have become part and substance of the tremendous 
outburst of elements which, in 1860-61, shook the foundations 
of the Republic to their very base. The bill reported by Mr. 
Douglas (Jan. 4th, 1854) was a modification of one introduced 
to the Senate, by Mr. Dodge, of Iowa, Dec. 14th, 1853, pro- 
posing to organize all territory north of 36° 30', south of 43" 
30' and west of Iowa to the summit of the Rocky Mountains 
into the Territory of Nebraska. Mr. Douglas' bill met with 
stern opposition and underwent mach change, until finally he 
introduced the bill organizing, out of the country speclned, 
the Territories of Kansas and Nebraska, and abrogating, in ex- 



THE KANSAS-NEBRASKA ACT. 459 

press words, the Missouri restriction. As finally adopted 
(May 2oth, 1854) the act contained this clause : 

" That tlie Constitution and all the laws of the United States which 
are not locally inapplicable, shall have the same force and effect within 
tlie said Territory of Nebraska, as elsewhere within the United States, 
except the eighth section of the act prejiai-atory to the admission of 
Missouri into the Union, approved March sixth, eighteen hundred and 
twenty, which being inconsistent with the principles of non-intervention 
by Congress with Slavery in the States and Territories, as recognized by 
the legislation of eighteen hundred and fifty, commonly called the Com- 
promise Measures, is hereby declared inoperative and void ; it being the 
true intent and meaning of this act not to legislate Slavery into any Ter- 
ritory or State, nor to exclude it therefrom, but to leave the people 
thereof perfectly free to form and regulate their domestic institutions in 
their own way, subject only to the Constitution of the United States ; 
Provided, That nothing herein contained shall be construed to revive 
or put in force any law or regulation which may have existed prior to 
the act of sixth of March, eighteen hundred and twenty, either protects 
ing, establishing, prohibiting or abolishing Slavery." * 

This act was signed by President Pierce May 30th, and thus 
became law. The country in both sections (slave and free) 
was thoroughly alive to the crisis. The South, with the aid 
of the Northern Democracy, had opened to slavery soil guar- 
anteed, by solemn contract, to freedom forever. Nothing there- 
fore remained for the North, if it would save the soil to free- 
dom and a Free State representation in Congress, but to avail 
of the " Squatter Sovereignty" clause, and, by peopling the 
Territory with Northern men, to thwart the Southern intrigu- 
ants. From every section of New England, from New York, 
from Ohio and her sister States, the cry went up : " Ho I for 

* Singular as it may appear the Missouri "restriction" had been overridden, 
years before— proving that, practically, the act was inoperative. June 7th, 1836, 
a bill was crowded through botli Houses of Congress, almost unnoticed, ceding to 
Missouri a triangular district of land lying west of the Missouri river, out of wliich 
eix counties were constituted. The district was, of course, free soil by virtue of 
the Compromise Act ; yet, it was deliberately absorbed by Missouri, the Indian 
titles extinguished at heavy cost by the General Government, and soon became 
one of the most populous slave sections of the whole State. It played a leading 
part in the Kansas war by supplying that horde whose brutal interference at the 
ballot-box, whose blockade of the Missouri river, and whose relentless persecution 
of Free State emigrants, won for them the appellation of " Border Ruffians." A 
more ignorant and thoroughly cruel class of " citizens" never cursed any com- 
munity with their malign presence. 

57 



460 THE KANSAS-NEBRASKA STRUGGLE. 

Kansas ! " and soon a strong tide of emigration set in for the 
new Territories, cliiefly by way of the Missouri river. This 
emigration was encouraged by the formation, in New England 
and Ohio particularly, of "Emigrant Aid Societies," which 
supplied means for all who chose to people the new country, 
secured the land, and assisted in developing the soil until its 
settlers should be self-sustaining. The town of Lawrence was 
founded, August 1st, by thirty persons, members of one of 
these societies, and thereafter became a kind of nucleus of set- 
tlement around which, in constantly extending circles, the 
Free State men gathered. 

But, the South was not idle. The very act of dividing the 
Territory into Nebraska and Kansas was designed to make the 
latter a Slave State, as, by the nature of its climate and soil, 
Nebraska must become a Free State. Says Gihon, in his 
" History of Kansas :'' " Many members of the pro-slavery par- 
ty, believing it to have been a matter understood and fixed by 
certain contracting powers and the heads of the General Gov- 
ernment, that Kansas was to become a Slave State, in order to 
keep up an equilibrium of Northern and Southern sectional 
and political interests, conscientiously suj)posed that, instead 
of its being a criminal offense, it was not only justifiable, but a 
virtue, to persecute, even to death, all Northern people who 
should enter the Territory with a disposition to defeat or thwart 
that object. All such were regarded as intruders, whom it 
was proper to remove at all hazards and by whatever means, 
however cruel or oppressive, that could be employed. This 
sentiment was not confined to Kansas and the adjoining State 
of Missouri, but was entertained by persons high in authority 
elsewhere, and especially at the seat of the Federal Govern- 
ment. By many it was freely acknowledged and boldly ad- 
vocated." 

The inhabitants of the border counties of Missouri had not 
been slow to avail themselves of Kansas' fertile fields. Imme- 
diately after the passage of the Act they crossed over the bor- 
der and "squatted" great farms, upon the soil of which the 
Indian titles had not yet been extinguished. Soon discovering 
that Free State men were passing into the Territory, these Mis- 



SECEET SOCIETIES. 461 

souri guardians of the public weal convened at Westport, 
Missouri, early in July, organised into an association and pass- 
ed the following: 

" Resolved, That this association will, whenever called upon by any 
of the citizens of Kansas Territory, hold itself in readiness together to 
assist to remove any and all emigrants who go there under the auspices 
of the Northern emigrant aid societies. 

" Resolved, That we recommend to the citizens of other counties, par- 
ticularly those bordering on Kansas Territory, to adopt regulations simi- 
lar to those of this association, and to indicate their readiness to operate 
in the objects of this first resolution." 

Succeeding this meeting were others, at which originated 
secret societies of a seditious character, designed to interfere 
with the JSTorthern settlers, by violence and persecution. Says 
the Eeport of the Congressional Committee on the Kansas 
Outrages : 

'• About the same time, and before any election was or could be held 
in tlie Territory, a secret political society was formed in the State of 
Missouri. It was known by diflereut names, such as 'Social Band.' 
'Friends' Society,' 'Blue Lodge,' 'The Sons of the South.' Its members 
were bound together by secret oaths, and they had passwords, signs 
and grips, by which they were known to each other. Penalties were 
imposed for violating the rules and secrets of the Order. Written min- 
utes were kept of the proceedings of the Lodges, and the different 
Lodges were connected together by an eflFective organization. It embrac- 
ed great numbers of the citizens of Missouri, and was extended into 
other Slave States and into the Territory. Its avowed i^arpose was not 
)nly to extend Slavery into Kansas, but also into other territory of the 
United States ; and to form a union of all the friends of that insti- 
tution. Its plan of operating was to organize and send men to vote 
at the elections in the Territory, to collect money to pay their ex- 
penses, and, if necessary, to protect them in voting. It also proposed 
to induce pro-slavery men to emigrate into the Territory, to aid and 
sustain them while there, and to elect none to ofiice but those friend- 
ly to their views. This dangerous society was controlled by men 
who avowed their purpose to extend Slavery into the Territory at 
all hazards, and was altogether the most effective instrument in or- 
ganizing the subsequent armed invasions and forays. In the Lodges 
in Missouri, the affairs of Kansas were discussed, the force necessary 
to control the election was divided into bands, and leaders selected ; 
means were collected, and signs and badges were agreed upon. While 
tlie great body of the actual settlers of the Territory were relying 
upon the rights secured to them by the organic latv, and had fornk- 



462 THE KANSAS-NEBKASKA STRUGGLE. 

ed no organization or combination whatever, this conspiracy against 
their riglits was • gathering strength in Missouri, and would liave 
been sufficient at their first election to have overpowered them, if 
they had been united to a man," 

These meetings and secret organizations were abetted by the 
press of "Western Missouri, whose editorials, in their own pecu- 
liar style of ' bowie knife rhetoric,' called upon Missourians to 
exterminate the "invaders." Under their influence many bad 
deeds were perpetrated which, otherwise, never wojild have 
been conceived. What could be expected of a people, notori- 
ously addicted to whiskey, fast horses and negro trading, when 
the press applauded their ruffianism as "devotion to the 
South " ? 

In spite of these proceedings ISTorthern men daily made their 
way into the Territory, chiefly by the river. During October, 
however, the Missourians offered such outrages to the emigrants 
— taking from them, first their arms, then their goods — that 
river travel was quite suspended, and even supplies were de- 
nied a transit except through well known ' Southern' hands 
for ' Southern' towns. The emigrants then were compelled to 
take the overland journey through Iowa and Nebraska — a te- 
dious and expensive route, but one used freely during the 
spring and summer of 1855. 

In pursuance of the policy indicated, President Pierce ap- 
pointed to territorial offices men of undoubted " Democratic" 
sympathies. Andrew H. Eeeder, the first Governor, arrived 
at Fort Leavenworth October 6th, to find a state of affairs quite 
distracted enough to distract him. Two parties were in the 
field contesting for the supremacy — one composed of Free 
State men, another of pro-slavery propagandists. The first 
was quiet but determined ; the other violent and ready for any 
deed of blood against what they termed "Northern aggression." 
It was in vain that Governor Reeder plead the right of North- 
ern men, under the organic act, to settle the Territory. Ac- 
cording to the Southern sentiment Kansas was not designed 
for a Free State, therefore free-soilers had no rights there which 
Southern men were bound to respect. Reeder, though a Dem- 
ocrat of sterling faith, and devoted to administration interests, 



MONSTEOUS FRAUDS. 463 

could not yield to tlie proscriptive and outrageous faction then 
led by one John W. Whitfield, an Indian Agent and employee 
of the General Government, whose sentiments were expressed 
in one of his popular harangues, as follows : 

" We can recognise but two parties in the Territory — the pro-slavery 
and the anti-slavery parties. If the citizens of Kansas want to live in 
this community at peace and feel at home, they must become pro-slavery 
men ; but if they want to live with gangs of thieves and robbers, they 
must go with the abolition part.y. There can be no third party — no 
more than two issues — slavery and no slavery, in Kansas Teri"itory." 

The first election for delegate to Congress, was appointed for 
Nov. 29th, 1854. The Territory was divided into seventeen 
election districts. At the appointed time -voting took place 
with a result disagreeably illustrative of the operation of 
' squatter sovereignty.' Of two thousand eight hundred and' 
seventy-one votes cast, one thousand seven hundred and twen- 
ty-nine were afterwards ascertained to have been illegal ! Thus, 
district No. II., with a census of thirty-five legal voters, cast 
two hundred and thirty- five votes for Whitfield, the pro-slaver j 
candidate ; district No. IV., having thirty legal voters, cast 
one hundred and forty votes for Whitfield ; district No. VII., 
having twenty legal voters, cast five hundred and ninety-seven 
votes for Whitfield ! Of course Whitfield was " elected," and 
he went to Washington as the accredited delegate to represent 
the interests of his constituents. These illegal votes were poll- 
ed by Missourians, or the boxes were simply " stuffed," and 
false lists returned. This course was determined upon before 
hand. For two weeks prior to the election Western Missouri^ 
(tlie old triangle and river counties) was canvassed by David- 
K. Atchison (ex-Democratic Vice President of the United 
States) and by " General" B. F. Stringfellow, who openly call- 
ed upon the people of Missouri to " enter every election dis- 
trict in Kansas, in defiance of Eeeder and his vile myrmidoms, 
and vote at the point of the bowie knife and revolver" ; " it was 
enough that the slave-holding interest wills it, from which there 
is no appeal" ; for, if the Free State men should triumph "then 
Missouri and the other Southern States will have shown them- 
selves recreant to their interests and will deserve their fate." 
These words reveal as once the baseness of the fraud perpe- 



4:64: THE KANSAS-NEBRASKA STRUGGLE. 

trnted and the design of that fraud — to make Kansas a Slave 
State at all hazards. 

It was not until after this invasion by " Border Euffians" 
that blood began to be shed. Up to that period much violence 
had been shown and many outrages committed. The town of 
Lawrence had been approached by a considerable body of Mis- 
sourians, bent upon its destruction, but they had been intimi- 
dated by the preparations to receive them. Free State men 
generally stood upon the defensive, and, in but few instances, 
up to Dec. 1st, resented the indignities put upon them. After 
that date, however, the ' hatchet was dug up,' and a war was 
waged whose details it is sickening to record. Robbery, ])il- 
lage, arson, murder, became matters of frequent occurrence, in- 
creasing in number and atrocity as the months passed ; and the 
struggle only ended when the Free State element became so 
overwhelmingly in the ascendant, during 1857, as to render 
Border Ruffian presence and Executive baseness no longer 
dangerous. Dr. John H. Stringfellow, having a paper at his 
command, published at Atcheson, Kansas, thus expressed the 
determination of the Southern men : 

" We can tell the iiDpertinent scoundrels of the iV. T. Tribune that tliey 
may exhaust an ocean of ink, their Emigrant Aid Societies spend their 
millions and billions, their representatives in Congress spout their heret- 
ical theories till doomsday, and His Excellency Franklin Pierce ajjpoint 
abolitionist after free-soiler as our Governor, yet we will continue to lynch 
and Tiang^ to tar and feather, and drowu every white-livered abolitionist 
who dares to pollute our soil." 

Here we have the true animus of that class against whom 
the Northern settlers had to contend : to lynch and hang, tar 
and feather J'' became their conception of law. These inhuman 
announcements, and the numerous evidences of a settled de- 
sign, on the part of the Missourians, to keep out and suppress 
Free State men, elicited, from the authorities at Washington, 
not a word of reproof, not a sign of warning, not an order to 
establish and preserve peace. The land was given up passive- 
ly as slave soil, and Northern immigrants were compelled, if 
they would save themselves from massacre, to take up arms 
in their own defense. 

[We have explored all avenues of information in public 



TERRITORIAL CENSUS. 466 

documents, letters, speeches and written records — we have con- 
sulted with men who acted a leading part in the drama, both 
as Northern and Southern partisans — we have listened to the 
stories which almost every household along the Missouri and 
Kansas rivers has to tell — all, to discover a satisfactory reason 
for Presidential complicity with Stringfellow, Titus, Cato and 
Lecompt. Not a vestige of organic law, not a shadow of con- 
stitutional procedure, not a trace of humane regard for human 
rights, can we elicit from that shocking reign of terror which 
now stands like a burning spot upon our National honor. Gov- 
ernors rapidly appointed, and as rapidly removed — the refusal 
to guarantee the sanctity of the ballot box — the uses of the 
military (regulars) to suppress Free State meetings and to ar- 
rest Northern men — the removal of the commander of the de- 
partment for suspected sympathy with the Northern men — the 
employment of a band of Georgia desperados as a posse comi' 
tatus to enforce " dbedience" — the instructions issued to the 
several Governors and the forced misconstruction of them by 
the National Executive — all are incidental witnesses which no 
political sorcery can allay: they rise up, along with the ghosis 
of murdered settlers and their heart broken wives, to impeach 
the memories of two Presidents with proofs of high crimes 
against the State and against humanity.] 

A second step in the organization of the Territory was the 
election of a General Assembly. This, Governor Eeeder or- 
dered for March 20th, 1856. It was accompanied by incidenis 
well calculated to bring the elective franchise into disgi-ace. 
As preliminary to a protection of the people against illegal in- 
terference at the ballot box, the Governor ordered a ceubus to 
be taken (during January and February) of the inhabitants 
and qualified voters of the Territory. The result was as fol- 
lows: 

Total population 8501 

Total voters 2905 

Natives of the United States 7161 

Of foreign birtli 409 

Slaves 243 

Free ne^jroes .--•••■-- 151 



4:6Q THE KANSAS-NEBRASKA STRUGGLE. 

Of the election wliicli followed the Congressional Committee 
spoke as follows : 

" On the same day the census was comijleted, the Governor issued his 
proclamation for an election to be held on the 30th of March, a. d. 1855, 
for members of the Legislative Asseml:)ly of the Territory. It prescribed 
the boundaries of the districts, the places for polls, the names of judges, 
the iippoiutment of members and recited the qualifications of voters. If 
it had been observed, a just and fair election would have reflected the 
will of the people of the Territory. Before the election, false and in- 
flammatory rumors were busily circulated among the people of Western 
Missouri. The number and character of the emigration then passing 
into the Territory were grossly exaggerated and misre^jresented. Through 
the active exertions of many of its leading citizens, aided by the secret 
societies before referred to, the passions and prejudices of the people of 
that Slate were greatly excited. Several residents there have testified 
to the character of the reports circulated among and credited by the 
people. These efforts were successful. By an organized movement, 
which extended from Andrew county in the north to Jasper county in 
the south, and as far eastward as Boone and Cole counties, companies 
of men were ari'anged in regular parties and sent into every council dis- 
tiict in the Territory, and into every representative district but one 
The numbers were so distrilsuted as to control the election in each dis- 
trict. They went to vote, and with the avowed design to make Kansas 
a Slave State. They were generally armed and equipped, carried with 
them their own provisions and tents, and so marched into the Territory. 
The details of this invasion from the mass of the testimony taken by 
your committee are so voluminous that we can here state but the lead- 
ing facts elicited." 

These " leading facts" were considered enough to prove to 
the- most incredulous that, in most of the districts, the election 
was worse than a mockery — it was a crime. So apparent was 
this from the returns and the known presence of bodies of Mis- 
souri ans, that Governor Reeder felt called upon to order special 
elections in several of the districts where invasion, bos stuffing 
and forged lists were too undisguised to pass them with Execu- 
tive sanction. This second election was set for May 2 2d. Of 
course it aroused the pro-slavery men to violent opposition. A 
meetmg was held at Leavenworth, April 80th, of those repre- 
senting "Southern rights." It was, as stated by local papers, 
" ably and eloquently addressed by Chief Justice Lecompt, 
Colonel J. N. Burns, of Weston, Missouri, and others" — Judge 



r 




i i 



ViGILAl<rCE COMMITTEE OPEEATIONS. 469 

Lecompt being Mr. Pierce's appointee to the higli office of 
Chief Justice of the Territory, The meeting resolved : 

" That the institution of slavery is known and recognised in this Ter- 
ritory; that we rejDel the doctrine that it is a moral and political evil, 
and we turn back with scorn upon its slanderous authors the charge of 
inhumanity; and we warn all persons not to come to our peaceful fire- 
sides to slander us, and sow the seeds of discord between the master and 
the servant ; for, as much as we deprecate the necessity to which we 
may be driven, we cannot be responsible for the consequences." 

And to cany out the resolve a committee of thirty was ap- 
pointed whose special duty it was to spy out and report all 
such as should, "by the expression of abolition sentiments 
produce a disturbance to the quiet of the citizens, or danger to 
their domestic relations; and all such persons, so offending, 
shall be notified, and made to leave the Territory." Under 
the operations of this committee a tyranny was instated as re- 
lentless as ever prevailed on a rice plantation. Orders were 
, issued to large numbers of Free State men, who were instract- 
, ed to leave the Territoiy in a specified number of days or suf- 
fer the penalty of death. Large numbers of settlers were 
driven from their homes, barely escaping with their wives and 
children, leaving behind them, to be appropriated by the 
Southern vagabonds, their homes and property. One case may 
Qie cited as an instance, j Among those who signed a protest 
against the election held in Leavenworth (March 20th) was a 
lawyer iianied William Phillips. He was, of course, among 
the first of those "warned' by the self-ccnstituted committee. 
Whereupon "he was, on the 17th of May, seized by a band of 
]non chleily from Missouri, who carried him eight miles up the 
river to Weston, where they shaved one half of his head, tarred 
and feathered him, rode him on a rail, and sold him at a mock 
auction by a negro, all of which he bore with manly fortitude 
and bravery, and then returned to Leavenworth and persisted 
in remaining, notwithstanding his life was constantly threaten- 
ed and in danger. He was subsequently murdered in his own 
nouse, by a company of ' law and order' men, or ' territorial 
militia,' under command of Captain Frederick S. Emory, sim- 
ply for refusing to leave the town." Eight days after this out- 
rage on his person, a second meeting was held in Leavenworth, 
58 



470 THE KANSAS-NEBRASKA STRUGGLE. 

over wliieli tlie memljer elect to the Assembly Council presid- 
ed. Judge Lecompte again "eloquently addressed" tlie assem- 
bly, and the following resolutions, presented by another inern- 
ber elect to the Assembly, were passed unanimously : 

" Resolved, That we heartily endorse the action of the committee of 
citizens that shaved, tarred and feathered, rode on a rail, and had sold 
by a negro, William Phillips, the moral perjurer. 

^^ Fenolved, That we return our thanks to the committee for faithfully 
performing the trust enjoined uj^on them by the pro-slavery party. 

'■'• Beaolved, That the committee be now discharged. 

'■'■ Besolced, That we severely condemn those pro-slavery men who, from 
mercenary motives, are calling upon the pro-slavery party to submit 
without further action. 

" Itesolved, That in order to secure peace and harmony to the commu- 
nity, we now solemnly declare that the pro-slavery party will stand 
firmly by and carry out the resolutions reported by the committee ap- 
pointed for that purpose on the memorable 30th." 

This local action was responded to very generally by Mis- 
sourians, and the right of invasion sustained. Numerous meet- 
ings were held by them at which addresses were made by 
prominent citizens. Dr. Gihon, in his " History of Kansas," 
quotes the following resolves, passed by a large public meeting 
held in Clay county, Mo., as giving a just impression of the 
ideas and feeling which prevailed : 

" Those who, in our State, would give aid to the abolitionists by in- 
ducing or assisting them to settle in Kansas, or would throw obstacles 
in the way of our friends, by fiilse and slanderous misrepresentations of 
the acts of those who took part in and contriluited to the glorious result 
of the late election in that Territory, should be driven from amongst us 
as traitors to their country. 

" That we regard the efforts of the Northern division of the Metho<list 
Episcopal Church to establish itself in our State as a violation of her 
plighted faith, and, pledged as its ministers must be to the anti-slavery 
principles of that church, we are forced to regard them as enemies to 
our institutions. We therefore fully concur with our friends in Platte 
county in resolving to permit no person belonging to the Northern Meth- 
odist Church to preach in our county. 

"That all persons who are subscribers to papers in the least tinctui-ed 
with free-soilism or abolitionism, are requested to discontinue them im- 
mediately." 

Shocking instances of violence occurred against their own citi- 
zens. All who ventured to signify a disapproval of these outrages 



THE INVASION. 471 

upon Kansas settlers and the ballot box were condemned as 
enemies to the South and were visited with persecution in va- 
rious ways. / Thus public sentiment was stifled, for few even of 
the wealthy and influential class cared to court the vengeance 
of the mob which presumed to hold the destiny of Kansas in 
its keeping. A newspaper office was mobbed in Parkeville, 
Platte county, because its venerable editor, Mr. Parke, had, in 
perfectly respectful terms, condemned the March invasion. 
The press, types, &c., were thrown into the river and the mob 
would have killed the assistant editor but for the interference 
of citizens. Mr. Parke being absent escaped lynching. His 
assistant was permitted to leave the town under penalty of 
death should he dare to return. Why did not the Governor 
of Missouri punish such crimes? Because they were commit- 
ted in behalf of the Southern cause! Why did not the law 
abiding citizens arm themselves against such villainy ? Because 
they would have been assassinated, their houses burned, their 
stock killed, by the incomparable scoundrels who shamed the 
Camanches in their revelry of wrong doing. Claiborne F. Jack- 
son, afterwards Governor of Missouri, headed one of the com- 
panies which invaded District No. I., March 80th. Said the 
Congressional Committee of this event : " The evening before 
and the morning of the day of election, about one thousand 
men from the above counties arrived at Lawrence, and encamp- 
ed in a ravine a. short distance from town, near the place of 
voting. They came in wagons — of which there were over one 
hundred — and on horseback, under command of Colonel Samu- 
el Young, of Boone county, Missouri, and Claiborne F. Jack- 
son, of Missouri. They were armed with guns, rifles, pistols 
and bowie knives, and had tents, music and flags with them. 
They brought with them two pieces of artillery, loaded wiih 
musket balls." It is not a matter of surprise that this Jackson 
should, as Governor of his State, afterwards have conspired to 
carry Missouri into the Southern Confederacy. He truly 
was a fit instrument for any political baseness. The surprise 
is that a man of his character should have been chosen Gov- 
ernor. Let us hope the day of public prostitution to such 
representatives of hateful elements is past, for Missouri- 



472 THE KANSAS-NEBRASKA STRUGGLE. 

Against tliis second election numerous protests were entered ; 
and so palpably illegal were the returns that, in such instances 
as properly signed protests were filed, the Governor refused to 
issue certificates to members whose election was thus contested. 
This action resulted, as might have been expected, in excessive 
swearing on the part of the pro-slavery faction, who denounced 
Eeeder as "an Abolitionist," and who had the base ingratitude 
to charge upon the President a design to make Kansas a Free 
State — the crudest of returns for what tha President had done 
for Southern interests. Notwithstanding these threats, Eeeder 
ordered a third election to be held in six of the contested dis- 
tricts. One of the Missouri papers thereupon exclaimed : 

" We learn, just as we go to press, that Reeder has refused to give cer- 
tificates to four of the Councilmen and thirteen members of the House, 
He has ordered an election to fill their places on the 22d of May. This 
infernal scoundrel will have to be hemped yet." 

It was determined by the Southern party to let the special 
election, ordered for May 22d, go by default, as the committee 
on elections in their Assenibly would deny seats to all Free 
State men elected under it. Only in Leavenworth did the 
pro-slavery men go to the polls, but there they went only for 
mischief and the destruction of the ballot box. True to their 
decision every man then elected was denied a seat in the Assembly, 
which assembled at Pawnee, July 2d, 1855. The committee 
on elections, under various pretexts, deprived of seats every 
free-soiler except one, and this one, owing to the personal peril 
by which he was constantly surrounded, was compelled quickly 
to resign ! This gave the legislation of the territorial organic 
laws into the hands of the pro-slave propagandists, and the As- 
sembly at once proceeded to the work of " making their own 
laws and forming their own institutions." It was in session 
for a term of fifty days, and legislated in that short space of 
time enough to fill three portly volumes. The laws adopted 
occupied in bulk over one thousand octavo pages. This would 
seem to indicate extreme industry as well as executive ability 
on the part of the Assemblymen ; but, when the fact trans- 
pired that those " laws" were, simply, an adaptation of the 
Missouri code, with slight alterations and a few most scandal- 
ous additions, we are undeceived as to the character and ability 



THE EANSAS CODE. 473 

of that legislative bodj. Eefei:riiig to these extraordinary pi-o- 
ceedings in organizing the Territorj'-, the Congressional Com- 
mittee state : 

" The material differences in the Missouri and Kansas statutes are 
upon the following subjects : The qualifications of voters and of mem- 
bers of the Legislative Assembly ; the official oath of all officers, attor- 
neys and voters ; the mode of selecting officers and their qualifications ; 
tlie slave code, and the qualifications of jurors. 

" Upon these subjects, the provisions of the Missouri code are such as 
ai'e usual in many of the States. But by the 'Kansas Statutes' every of- 
fice in the Territory^ executite and judicial^ was to he ajjpointed ly tlie 
Legislature, or hy some officer appointed hy it. These appointments were 
not merely to meet a temporary exigency, but were' to hold over two 
regular elections, and until after the general election in October, 1857, 
at which the members of the new council were to be elected. The new 
Legislature is required to meet on the first Monday in January, 1858, 
Thus, by the terms of these " laws," the people have no control what- 
ever over either the Legislature, the executive or the judicial depart- 
ments of tlie Territorial Government until a time before which, by the 
natural progress of population, the Territorial Government will be super- 
seded by a State Government. 

" No session of the Legislature is to be held during 1856, but the, 
members of the House are to be elected in October of that year. A can- 
didate, to be eligible at this election, must swear to support the fugitive 
slave law; and each voter, if challenged, must take the same oath. The 
same oath is required of every officer elected or appointed in the Terri- 
tory, and of every attorney admitted to practice in the courts. 

" A portion of the militia is required to muster on the day of election, 
'Every free white male citizen of the United States, and every free male 
Indian who is made a citizen by treaty or otherwise, and over the age 
of twenty-one years, and who shall be an inhabitant of the Territory 
and of the county and district in which he offers to vote, and shall have 
paid a Territorial tax, shall be a qualified elector for all elective offices.' 
Two classes of persons were thus excluded, who by the organic act were 
allowed to vote, viz.: those who would not swear to the oath required, 
and those of foreign birth who had declared on oath their intention to 
become citizens. Any man of jjroper age who Avas in the Territory on 
the day of election, and who had paid one dollar as a tax to the Sheriff, 
who was required to be at the polls to receive it, could vote as an ' in- 
habitant,' although he had breakfasted in Missouri, and intended to re- 
turn there for supper. Tliere can be no doubt that this unusual and 
xmconstitutional provision was inserted to prevent a full a,nd fair ex- 

60 



474 TRi? KANSAS-NEBRASKA STRUGGLE. 

pression of the popular will in the election of members of the House, or 
to control it hj non-residerts, 

" All jurors are required to be selected by the Sheriff, and ' no person 
•who is conscientiously opposed to the holding of slaves; or who does not 
admit the right of holding slaves in the Territory, shall be a juror in any 
cause' affecting the right to hold slaves, or relating to slave property." 

It is not in the order of human events that men, in whose 
breasts remain one spark of self respect, should submit, as sub- 
jects, to such shocking perversions of law.' "We should have 
been surprised had the Free State settlers tamely abandoned, 
in that crisis, all their hopes and their rights under the Kansas- 
Nebraska Act. They moved quietly and resolutely forward, 
in the only path open for escape from lawlessness and usurpa- 
tion. After the invasion of March 30th, they circulated for 
signatures a memorial to Congress, citing, with graphic force 

* John M. Clayton, U. S. Senator from the State of Delaware, afterwards refer- 
ring to these laws thus characterised them : " Now, Sir, let me allude to that sub- 
cect which is the great cause of all this discord between the two Houses. The un- 
just, iniquitous, oppressive and infamous laws enacted by the Kansas Legislature, 
as it is called, ought to be repealed before we adjourn. * * * What are these 
laws ? One of them sends a man to bard labor for not less than two years for 
daring to discuss the question whether Slavery exists or does not exist in Kansas : 
not less than two years — it may be fifty ; and if a man could live to be as old as 
Mathuselah, it might be over nine hundred years. That act prohibits all freedom 
of discussion in Kansas, on the great subject directly referred to the exclusive de- 
cision of the people in that Territory ; strikes down the liberty of the press, too ; 
and is an act egregiously tyrannical as ever was attempted by any of the Stuarts, 
Tudors or Plantagenets of England, and this Senate persists in declaring that w<j 
are not to repeal that ! 

" Sir, let us tender to the House of Representatives the repeal of that and of all 
other objectionable and infamous laws that were passed by that Legislature. I 
include in this denunciation, without any hesitation, those acts which prescribe 
that a man shall not even practice law in the Territory unless he swears to support 
the Fugitive Slave Law; that he shall not vote at any election, or be a member of 
the Legislature, unless he swears to support the Fugitive Slave Law ; that he shall 
not hold any office of honor or trust there, unless he swears to support the Fugitive 
Slave Law ; and you may as well impose just such a test oath for any other and 
every other law. * * * I ■V7iii not go through the whole catalogue of the op- 
pressive laws of this Territory. I have done that before to-day. There are others 
as bad as those to which I have now referred. * * * I will not, on the other 
hand, ever degrade myself by standing for an instant by those abominable and in- 
famous laws which I denounced here this morning. What I desire now is, that the 
Senate of the United States shall wash its hands of all participation in these iniqui- 
ties by repealing those laws." 



THE TOPEKA MOVEMENT. 475 

find much minuteness of specification, the wrongs and disabil- 
ities put upon them, praying for relief And when the char- 
acter of the Assembly legislation became apparent the North- 
ern settlers resolved to initiate a movement for the formation 
of a State Government, and to apply for admission at the com- 
ing session of Congress, Meetings were held in various locali- 
ties, when the subject was canvassed in a thorough manner. 
No violence was betrayed in their proceeding — only a spirit 
of determination to preserve their rights under the Constitution 
against the tyranny of Missourian and outside interference. A 
mass convention of Free State citizens and actual settlers was 
held at Lawrence, August 15th, 1855. A large representation 
of the best inhabitants of the Territory was present. The fol- 
lowing were adopted : 

" Whereas, The people of Kansas have been, since its settlement, and 
now are, -without any law-making power, therefore be it 

" Resolved, That we, the' people of Kansas Territory, in masi meeting 
assembled, irrespective of party distinctions, influenced by common ne- 
cessity, and greatly desirous of promoting the common good, do hereby 
call upon and request all lona fide citizens of Kansas Territory, of what- 
ever political views and i^redilectious, to consult together in their re- 
spective Election Districts and in mass conventions or otherwise, elect 
three delegates for each representative to which said Election District 
is entitled in the House of Representatives of the Legislative Assembly, 
by proclamation of Governor Reeder, of date 19th of March, 1855; said 
delegates to assemble in convention, at the town of Topeka, on the 19th 
day of September, 1855, then and there to consider and determine upon 
all subjects of public interest, and particularly upon that having refer- 
ence to the speedy formation of a State Constitution, with an intention 
of an immediate application to be admitted as a State into the Union 
of the United States of America." 

This action was endorsed by other assemblies of settlers and 
lona fide inhabitants, and delegates formally elected as desig- 
nated. The convention met at Topeka, Sept. 19th, 1855, and 
proceeded in regular form, to the work of preliminary or- 
ganization for a State Government. An Executive Committee, 
composed of seven leading and able citizens, was named and 
duly authorized, under prescribed regulations, to take steps 
for an election to be held on the second Tuesday of October 
following " for members of a Convention to form a Constitu- 



4:76 THE KANSAS- NEBRASKA STRUGGLE. 

tion, adopt a Bill of Rights for the people of Kansas, and take 
all needful measures for organizing a State Government prepa- 
ratory to the admission of Kansas into the Union as a State." 
This Committee acted promptly, by issuing a proclamation ad- 
dressed to the legal voters of Kansas, requesting them to meet 
at their several precincts, at the time and places named in the 
proclamation, then and there to cast their ballots for members 
of a Constitutional Convention, to meet at Topeka on the 4th 
Tuesday of October following. The proclamation also desig- 
nated the places of elections, appointed judges, recited the 
qualifications of voters and the apportionment of members of 
the Convention. This call and action were responded to, by 
the actual settlers^ with great unanimity. Proof upon this point 
appears to be incontestible. The inhabitants felt that it was 
the lawful way to proceed, and all entered into the election 
with great good spirit. These elections passed off with har- 
mony, very full votes being polled in every district except two, 
where pro-slavery feeling reigned triumphant under the rule 
of a floating mob having no visible means of support nor any 
claims to citizenship except their temporary presence on Kan- 
sas soil. According to regulations prescribed, the Executive" 
Committee proclaimed the results of that election, and issued 
an order requiring' the members elect to convene at Topeka, 
October 23d, 1855, as a "Constitutional Convention," duly 
elected and legally constituted. The Convention accordingly 
met, and addressed itself to the work of forming a State Con- 
stitution. This being accomplished a respectful memorial was 
addressed to Congress praying for the admission of Kansas to 
the Union, under the Constitution adopted. As preliminary 
to this application to Congress, the Constitution was submitted 
to a vote of the people Dec. 15th, 1855, with a result as fol- 
lows : For Constitution 1731— against 46 ; for General Banki ng 
Law 1120 — against 564 ; for Exclusion of Negroes and Mulat- 
toes from rights of citizenship 1287 — against exclusion 453 ; 
total number of votes cast 1778. In " Leavenworth the poll 
book was destroyed. After this acceptance an election was 
ordered by the Executive Committee for State Officers (to be 
held Jan. 15th, 1856) and for members of a General Assembly. 



PROSCRIPTION OF FREE STATE MEN. 477 

This was duly lield and the result announced, pro forma, by 
the Committee. The members elect met at Topeka, March 1st, 
1856, and organized the first General Assembly. Dr. Charles 
Eobinson, Governor elect, took the oath of office. An election 
of United Senators was held, by which ex-Governor Eeeder 
and James H. Lane were chosen to take their seats when the 
State should be admitted to the Union. After transacting 
much im.portant business the Assembly adjourned, to meet 
again on the 4th of July following. 

The reader is now in possession of the leading facts concern- 
ing the organization of the two Governments, Territorial and 
State. One, done under the apparent sanction of the Organic 
Act was, in reality, in contravention of the entire spirit of our 
democratic institutions. The other, without appealing to the 
Organic Act for authority, proceeded, in the usual form, to or- 
ganize a government and to apply for admission to the Union 
directly as a State. That the latter represented a majority of 
the actual settlers of Kansas — the men who have since consti- 
tuted' the State's best population, has not been successfully de- 
nied. That th« former was the offsprmg of fraud and outrage 
•upon the elective franchise is equally unquestionable. 

The Pawnee Assembly so legislated as to strip the Governor 
of power to do "the cause" harm. They made, as we have 
seen, territorial offices legislative appointments so far as it was 
possible to do so under the Organic Act. This was aimed at 
Eeeder, who was regarded by the Missourians as inimical to 
their proceedings. It was a useless step, however. Eeeder 
was, upon a baseless pretext of land speculation, removed, 
July 31st, 1855. From that moment, until after October, '57, 
a period of over two years, as Dr. Gihon truthfully states, 
" there was hut one man^ and he the post-master at Lawrence, who 
held an office either under the Federal Government or hy appoint- 
ment of the Legislature, or through their agents, who was not in 
favor of introducing Slavery into the Territory and through any 
means hy which it coidd he effected ! " This simple fact should 
be borne in mind, as it is the key that unlocks the Pandora 
box of mischief which followed. 

The Free State movement was taken, as stated, to avert the 
69 



478 THE KANSAS-NEBRASKA STRUGGLE. 

calamities threatening. Its proceedings, looking, as tliej diil, 
to a total evasion of the territorial laws, were met by the pro- 
slavery partisans with threats of wholesale arrests for treason. 
Violence was to be expected ; yet the movement inaugurated 
at Lawrence gradually assumed definite shape. On the 9th 
of October, 1855, an election for -delegates to Congress — order- 
ed by the Executive Committee alreadj- referred to — resulted 
in the election of ex-Governor Eeeder, by the vote of 2827.1 In 
this election the Southern partisans did not participate. Their 
election for the same office transpired, by order of the Shawnee 
Mission Assembly,' October 1st, when Whitfield was returned 
by over three thousand votes — nearly or quite one thousand 
of them absolutely illegal. These two delegates went on to 
Washington, in December, but both, though paid mileage fees, 
were rejected by Congress. The Free State Constitution— ac- 
cej)ted Dec. 15th, 1855, by vote of the people thereon — result- 
ed in the gathering at Topeka March 1st of the ofl&cers elect 
of the new government and of the newly elect State Legisla- 
ture, at which the proceedings already recorded were had. 

Governor Eeeder was removed July 80th, and Wilson Shan- 
non appointed in his stead. Shannon was then a resident of 
the Territory, and a partisan of the pro-slave faction. He was 
a man of bad precedents, dissolute and reckless, i Why such 
a person should have been named to the responsible trust only 
those in power at Washington manipulating Kansas affairs, can 
tell. His reign, though brief, was characterised by a perfect 
confraternity with all the worst elements in the Territory. He 
addressed himself to the task of suppressing the Free State 
movement, and soon found an opportunity of calling out " the 
militia," by which was meant taking into his employ about 
eight hundred as wretched creatures as ever shouldered a mus- 
ket. The direct pretext for this act was the rescue, by his 
friends, from the hands of " Sheriff" Samuel J. Jones, of an old 
man named Branson, a Free State settler. This man, Jones, 
upon a " peace" warrant, had arrested and was bearing off to 

* Pawnee was deserted by vote of the Assembly Jnly 4th, ]855. and Shaivnee 
Mission chosen as the temporary seat of tlie territorial Government. Eeeder ve- 
toed' this act of removal, but it was repassed over his veto. 



THE "militia" called OUT. 479 

prison, when "he was quietly taken from Jones' custody. The 
facts of the case rendered the arrest one of outrageous impu- 
dence. Coleman, a pro-slave ruffian, deliberately and in cold 
blood shot down a young man named Dow. Branson took the 
body into his house, from whence it was buried. Coleman, 
after the horrid deed, fled and placed himself under the protec- 
tion of Sheriff Jones. The murderer liad two accomplices, 
who soon joined him. One of them swore out a peace warrant 
against Branson, as having threatened his life, and upon this 
warrant Jones, in company with a band of seven, including the 
two accomplices to the murder, proceeded to arrest Branson ! 
The Free State men at once ralHed and, without violence, res- 
cued their friend. Whereupon Jones called upon Governor 
Shannon (Nov. 27th) for three thousand men to " carry out the 
laws"! Shannon at once ordered out "Major- General" Wm. 
P. Eichardson, a citizen of Missouri, but also a member of tho 
Kansas Council, and, by virtue of legislative appointment, Ma- 
jor-General of the territorial militia. As there were no "mili- 
tia" in the Territory the programme was to introduce armed 
partisans from Missouri. ; The most outrageous falsehoods were 
disseminated in regard to the rescue affair and the belligerent 
attitude of the Free State men. Shannon published numerous 
orders calculated to fan the excitement, and, on the 29th of 
Nov. issued his Proclamation calling upon all " good citizens" 
to come forward to assist him in reclaiming the prisoner. The 
friends of " law and order" — as the Southern partisans called 
themselves — spread the alarm. Missouri was expected to fur- 
nish men for the crisis. Numerous meetings were held along 
the border and down the Missouri .river to raise " troops for the 
war." The following circular was scattered, by special express- 
es, widely over the surrounding counties : 

" Independekce, Mo., Dec. 2d. 

" An express, in at ten o'clock last night, says all the volunteers, am- 
munition, &c., that can be raised will be needed. The express was for- 
warded by Governor Shannon to Colonel Woodson, and by "Woodson to 
this place, to be transmitted to various parts oi the country. Call a 
meeting, and do everything you can. 

" Drs. McMuery and Henry.'* 

The Woodson here referred to then was a member of Con- 



480 THE KANSAS-NEBRASKA STRUGGLE. 

gress from Missouri but an active promoter of the several "in- 
vasions." A second circular was issued as follows, from tbe 
same headquarters of patriotism, viz.: 

"Independence, Dec. 3, 8 p. m. 

"Jones will not make a move until there is sufficient force in the field 
to ensure success. We have not more than three hundred men in the 
Territory. You will, therefore, urge all who are interested in the mat- 
ter to start immediately for the seat of war. There is no doubt in re- 
gard to having a fight, and we all know that a great many have com- 
plained because they were disappointed heretofore in regard to a fight. 
Say to them, now is tho time to show game, and, if we are defeated this 
time, the Territory is lost to the South." 

These appeals threw into Kansas about fifteen hundred cut- [ 
throats ready for the work of " wiping out the Abolitionists/^ 
The grand provocation had been offered ; and, as the circular 
last quoted said : "if defeated this time the Territory is lost to 
the South," it was a question of " Southern rights" to be de- . 
cided — a State to be lost or won. Shannon, afterwards seeking 
to exculpate himself from responsibility in this disgusting epi- 
sode of his reign, said : " These men came to the Wakarusa 
camp to fight ; they did not ask peace ; it was war — war to the 
knife. They ivoidd come] it was impossible to prevent them. 
What, then, was my policy ? Certainly this ; to mitigate an 
evil which it was impossible to suppress, by bringing under 
military control these irregular and excited forces. This was 
only to be accomplished by permitting the continuance of the 
course which had already been adopted, without my knowledge, 
by Generals Eichardson and Strickler ; that is, to have the vol 
unteers incorporated, as they came in, into the already organ- 
ized command. A portion of these men were mostly from 
Jackson county, Mo., reported themselves to Sheriff Jones, by 
giving in a list of their names, as willing to serve in his posse ; 
and he, after taking legal advice upon the question, determined 
to receive them. They were accordingly enrolled." And thus 
these assassins were adopted for the Governor's service, 
Kansas, for the moment, was at mercy of a mob over whose 
actions the Governor himself presumed to exercise no direct 
authority. "Sheriff" Jones alone was their accepted leader, 
nnder whose auspices the "Wakarusa War" was to be waged. 



shannon's TREATY. 481 

Against this fierce horde the Free State men resolved to 
stand. "Governor" Eobinson and "Senator" Lane rapidly 
gathered at Lawrence a body composed of nearly one thousand 
men, armed with Sharpe's rifles. Eude fortifications were 
thrown up on Oread Hill and everything arranged for a de- 
fense of the town against the destruction impending, j Shannon 
saw this with dismay. What would the country — the world — 
say to his complicity in thus exciting a resort to arms ? He 
resolved to call in United States troops (regulars) to preserve 
the peace, and dispatched urgent appeals to Colonel (afterwards 
Major-General) Sumner, commanding at Fort Leavenworth, for 
aid.. This step the Southern men of course disapproved, and 
eftorts were made to intercept Shannon's dispatches to Sumner. 
The U. S. officer resolved, however, not to interfere without 
orders from the War Department at Washington. Still desir- 
ous of preventing a collision, and acting under advice of Sum- 
ner, Shannon issued orders to General Eichardson and " Sherifl"" 
Jones to proceed no further until he should receive instructions 
from Washington. The "Sheriff" protested, in a note dated 
Camp Wakarusa, Dec. 4th, against any delay ; he insisted upon 
orders to go forward and make his "arrests," for which he had 
prepared a pocket full of warrants. But he was denied such 
oixlers ; and matters remained in statu quo, while various ne- 
gotiations were pending between Shannon and the Free State 
leaders, for a peaceful adjustment of differences. This was 
finally effected, and a document, " done in Lawrence, K. T., 
Dec. 8th, 1855," signed by Wilson Shannon, Charles Eobinson 
and J. H. Lane, was published, setting forth the terms of treaty 
adopted. It was a most extraordinarj'- instrument of agree- 
ment, if, as Shannon and the pro-slave partisans averred, the 
Free State men were in rebellion. The Governor, on the 9 th, 
issued orders to Jones and Eichardson to disband their forces.* 
To the former he said : " Having made satisfactory arrange- 
ments by which all legal processes in your hands, either now 

* See Executive Documents No. I. 3d session of 34tli Congress (185(5-7) pages 
45 to 173, for the entire correspondence, orders, &c., concerning tlie " Wakarusa 
war" and subsequent events np to Nov. 7th, 1856. The documents accompanied 
by raesgage of Dec. '2d, 1856, comprise the entire correspondence and dispatches 
of Shannon and a portion of those of his successor, Governor Geary. 



482 THE KANSAS-NEBRASKA STRUGGLE. 

Or hereafter, may be served without the aid of your present 
posse^ you are hereby required to disband the same." On the 
same day the Governor announced the following : 

" To G. Bobinson and J. H. Lane, Commanders of the Enrolled Citizetis of 
Lawrence : 

"You are hereby authorized and directed to take such measures and 
use the enrolled forces under your command in such manner, for the 
preservation of the peace and the protection of the persons and property 
of tlie people in Lawrence and its vicinity, as in your judgment shall 
best secure that end. Wilson Shannon. 

" Lawrence, Dec. 9th, 1855." 

Considering the late call to arms, and the Governor's procla- 
mation of Nov. 29th, denouncing the " numerous associations 
of lawless men, armed with deadly weapons and supplied with 
all the implements of war, combined and confederated together 
for the avowed purpose of opposing by force and violence, the 
execution of the laws of this Territory," this latter authoriza- 
tion and the disbanding of the Southern posse was a most re- 
markable evidence of the Governor's weakness or of the Free 
State strength. The posse disbanded in rage and disgust, 
making open threats that they soon would see town in ashes, 
in spite of Shannon. 

To the personal rencontres, the combats of parties represent- 
ing the two elements of discord, the house burnings and out- 
rages perpetrated upon persons and property we cannot advert 
Their briefest mention would necessitate a long chapter, whose 
perusal might gratify a taste craving for excitement, but could 
not add to the strength or clearness of the record which we de- 
sire to present. 

The application to Washington for permission to use the 
U. S. troops was answered satisfectorily. Shannon received, 
in February, 1856, authority to employ the Federal military to 
enforce the laws of the Shawnee Legislature — thus confirming 
that Assembly in its assumptions. The President had, in his 
annual message Dec. 31st, 1855, and in his special message of 
Jan. 24th, argued the case of the territorial orgaQization, giving 
to the Southern men the most unqualified sympathy in their 
struggle with "fanaticism." His last message, indeed, read as 
if it had emanated from Messrs. Atcheson and Stringfellow — so 



CONGRESSIOKAL ACTION". 483 

strongly did it condemn the movement and programme of the 
Free State settlers. He followed this up with a proclamation 
denouncing the acts of the Topeka Convention and setting 
forth the territorial or Shawnee Mission Assembly as the only 
legal legislative power of the Territory. Orders were sent for- 
ward to the Western Military department for its commander to 
sustain Shannon in his efforts to enforce the laws of the Shaw- 
nee Assembly and to suppress the Topeka convocation. This 
action was sustained, in the Senate, by the majority report 
made by Mr. Douglas, March 12th, 1856, from the Committee 
on Territories, to which had been referred the special message 
on Kansas affairs. In this report the President's view of mat- 
ters was, substantially, endorsed.' It went into a somewhat 
minute history of Congressional legislation and the subsequent 
proceedings in Kansas up to the date of the message. It de- 
fended the course pursued by the Southern men as being efforts 
to counteract incendiary proceedings of Northern States and 
"Emigrant Aid Societies." The minority report of this same 
committee (composed of Judge Collamer of Vermont) gave a 
most thorough expose of the whole system by which the Kan- 
sas struggle was thrust upon the country. It forms one of the 
leaves of current history, embodying, as it does, a presentment 
of the case which ultimately triumphed in defiance of the tre- 
mendous power and patronage of two Presidents secretly 
committed to delivering Kansas over to the South. 

In the House a fierce struggle was waged over Kansas affaii's. 
While the Senate was applauding the Shawnee Mission As- 
sembly, and seeking to enforce its monstrous legislation at the 
point of Federal bayonets, the House was struggling to secure 
justice for the oppressed Free State settlers. Not, however, 
until March 19th, 1856, was a final vote had on the proposition 
of the Committee on Elections to send for persons and papers,. 
It was then so modified as to appoint a special committee of 
three to proceed to Kansas, with full powers to take testimony- 
and to compel attendance of witnesses. On this commission 
were placed Wm. A. Howard, of Michigan, John Sherman, of 
Ohio, and Oliver, of Missouri — the latter a known svmpathiser 
with the Southern faction. This commission reached Law- 



484 THE KANSAS-NEBRASKA STRUGGLE. 

rence April 17th, and at once entered upon its most onerous 
as well as dangerous duties. The Southern partisans viewed 
it with extreme distrust. Well they might, since the revela- 
tions made by the committee came before the country to prove, 
beyond cavil, the worst charges preferred against the National 
and Territorial Executives and the rufl&ans whose reign of ter- 
ror had made Kansas soil red with blood. 

Just prior to the arrival of the commission in Kansas there 
passed into the Territory a regiment of desperados recruited 
chiefly in South Carolina, Georgia and Alabama by one " Colo- 
nel" Buford. By whose order they were thus recruited none 
cared to confess. The fact that they were, on their arrival, 
adopted by the U. S. Marshal Donalson, as a posse, and were 
armed by Governor Shannon with United States muskets, 
proved their advent to have been part of the programme for 
making Kansas a Slave State. / A few of them, it is stated, 
came as honest settlers, to better their fortunes ; but, the great 
majority were arrant villains who long proved a pest to the 
Territory as assassins, highway robbers, horse thieves and 
rogues ready for any bad service. Duiing the session of the 
commission the outrages against Northern settlers culminated 
in " official" acts of great severity/ Armed with authority from 
Washington to enforce the acts of the Shawnee Assembly, 
Shannon felt secure, and " Sheriff' Jones proceeded to put in 
force his long threatened arrest for treason of leading Free 
State men. As preliminary to this arrest Donalson placed Bu- 
ford's vagabonds in quarters around Lawrence, where they 
soon became a terror to all inhabitants. Ju^e LecoiuptaTon 
the 6th of May, delivered his charge to a grand jury convened 
in Douglas county. His words were : 

" This Territory was organized by an act of Congress, and so far its 
autliority is from the United S.ates. It has a Legislature elected in pur- 
suance of that Organic act. This Legislature, being an instrument of 
Congress, by -wliich it governs the Territory, has passed laws; these laws 
therefore, are of United States authority and making, and all that resist 
these laws, resist the power and authority of the United States, and are, 
therefore, guilty of high treason. Xow, gentlemen, if you find that any 
persons liave resisted these laws, then must you, under your oaths, find 
bills against such persons for high treason. If you find that no such. 



JUDGE LECOMPTE'S JURY. 485 

resistance has been made, but tbat combinations have been formed for 
the purpose of resisting them, and individuals of influence and no- 
toriety have been aiding and abetting in sucli combinations, tlicn must 
you still find bills for constructive treason, as the courts have decid- 
ed that to constitute treason the blow need not be struck, but only 
the intention be made evident." 

This sentiment was reciprocated fully bj the Missouri jury- 
men, who were not long in concocting a presentment "that, 
from the evidence before them" they had to report the two 
Free State journals — The Herald of Freedom and The Kansas 
Free State — were demoralizing and seditious sheets, which they 
(the jurymen) recommended should be abated as nuisances. 
Also that the building in Lawrence known as the "Free State 
Hotel" was constructed with a view to regular military occu- 
pation and defense, and it was therefore a nuisance also to be 
abated! /Writs were soon secured "from the proper authori- 
ties" against many prominent Free State citizens in Lawrence 
and vicinity and their service committed to the proper repre- 
sentative of Marshal Donalson. The citizens of Lawrence were 
reputed to be prepared for this advent of their old enemy, 
hence the Deputy Marshal did not attempt to enter the town. 
Donalson then issued a call to the people of Kansas, May 11th, 
1846, commanding all "law abiding citizens of the Territoi-y" 
to appear at Lecompton, as soon as practicable and in numbers 
sufficient for the execution of the law. 

At the very moment of this call Buford's men and several 
other organized military bodies were close to Lawrence ready 
for duty. Their near vicinity called from the people of the 
town and the farmers around an address to the Governor, stat- 
ing that these men were but robbers and asking from him pro- 
tection by the United States' troops at his disposal. The Gov- 
ernor flatly refused all protection so long as the citizens were 
in arms to resist the laws. That the entire proceeding of Le- 
compte, Donalson and Shannon was a gross libel on the acts 
and circumstances of the Lawrence men the reader need hard 
ly be told. A meeting of the citizens held May 13th, adopted 
the following explicit resolution : 

" Resolved, By this public meeting of the citizens of Lawrence, held 
this thirteenth day of May, 1856, that the allegations and charges 
60 



486 THE KANSAS-NEBRASE'A STRUGGLE. 

against us, contained in the aforesaid j^roclamation, are wholly untnie 
in fact, and the conclusion which is drawn from them. The aforesaid 
deputy marshal was resisted in no manner whatever, nor by any person 
whatever, in the execution of said writs, except by him whose arrest the 
said dejjuty marshal was seeking to make. And that we now, as we 
have done heretofore, declare our willingness and determination, with- 
out resistance, to acquiesce in the service upon us of any judicial writs 
against us by the United States Deputy Marshal for Kansas Territory, 
and will furnish him with a posse for that purpose, if so requested ; but 
that we are ready to resist, if need be, unto death, the ravages and deso- • 
lation of an invading mob. J. A, Wakefield, President." 

This was sent to Shannon and Donalson. A letter, signed 
by a large committee of the best citizens, was addressed to the 
Marshal, also, explicitly denying that any opposition had been 
offered to any legal process, or that any such would be offered, 
and asking protection from the mob. Donalson's reply was, 
like Shannon's, a pledge to give no quarter to men armed with 
Sharpe's rifles and bound together by oaths and pledge to re- 
sist the laws. As if the Free State settlers would have been 
unarmed in view of the dangers by which they had for months 
been surrounded ! As for being banded together to " resist the 
laws," the solemn declai'ations above cited disprove the charge. 

The pre-deter77imed purpose of all that demonstration was not 
to " enforce the laws" but to sack and hum Laivrence, and thus, 
by one decisive stroke, to get rid of the Free State faction. 
That was the sole intent of Lecompte's charge, of the writs of 
arrest issued, and of the presence before Lawrence of that large 
armed mob composed almost exclusively of non-residents of 
the Territory, and who gathered for the openly acknowledged 
object of clearing the Territory of all "abolitionists." Writs 
were obtained upon the affidavit of any pro-slavery rascal who 
coveted his neighbor's goods. Tliese the "Sheriff" served, 
with a large |)osse always at his side, and soon the ja-il at Le- 
compton was filled with Northern men — many of them perfect- 
ly guiltless of any act which even the " friends of the South" 
could construe into an offense. ! Soon, gathering assurance, 
this officer visited Lawrence and made numbers of arrests for 
alleged petty offenses. On the 23d of AjDril he came in with a 
strong guard of United States dragoons from the fort and ar- 



THE SACKING OF LAWEENCE. 487 

rested several leading citizens, for "resistance to the laws," for 
"inciting sedition," for "being dangerous to the public peace," 
&c„ &c. This last arrest greatly excited the populace, who 
read in it the fate in store for every man who had taken a part 
in the State movement./ The prisoners w°re bc^rne to the 
"Sheriff's" camp and quartered among his posse, subjected to 
insults and occasional acts of violence. Some one, during the 
night, shot into Jones' tent, wounding him slightly. This act 
awakened a second frenzy among the pro-slave press, which 
teemed with articles eulogistic of the brave Jones and defaming 
Northern men. ' The moment for sacking and burning Law- 
rence had come. Several murders followed of a most atrocious 
character — the victims being Northern settlers. 

On the morning of May 21st Marshal Donalson ordered the 
advance upon Lawrence. Mount Oread had been seized during 
the night and two cannon planted there. " Governor" Eobin- 
son's house, located on the hill, was seized and converted at 
pnce to the uses of the armed mob. By eight o'clock the town 
was surrounded. No resistance was, or had been, offered. The 
parade was useless since the inhabitants of the place had re- 
solved to submit to the course of "justice" and trust to the fu- 
ture to restore them their liberty and their rights. A Deputy 
Marshal, with a strong posse, proceeded to make arrests of two 
active Free State partisans. This done the Marshal ordered 
his " forces" to retire ; the U. S, dragoons withdrew, but Jones 
soon appeared on the scene, accompanied by ex- Vice President 
David E. Atchison. This latter addressed the mob, using the 
coarsest language, informing them that the time had arrived to 
"wipe out the accursed Abolitionists." Led by Jones and 
Atchison the ruf&ans then proceeded to the work of destruc- 
tion. The " Free State Hotel," and the two newspaper offices 
already named as having been indicted by Judge Lecompte's 
jury, were soon a mass of ruins. The affair was thus chron- 
icled by the Lecompton Union, Judge Lecompte's "organ." 

" During this time a^jpeals were made to Slieriif Jones to save the Aid 
Society's Hotel. This news reached the company's ears, and was receiv- 
ed with one universal cry of ' No, no ! blow it up ! blow it up ! ' 

" About this time a banner was seen fluttering in tlie breeze over the 



488 THE KANSAS-NEBRASK^ STRUGGLE. 

office of TTie JTerald of Freedom. Its color was a lilood-red, ■with a lone 
star in the centre, and South Carolina al)ove. This banner was placed 
there i)y the Carolinians — Messrs. Wrights and a Mr. Cross. The effect 
was i^rodigious. One tremendous and long continued shout burst from 
the ranks. Thus floated in triumph the banner of South Carolina — that 
single white star, so emblematic of her course in the early history of our 
sectional disturbances. When every Southern State stood almost upon 
the verge of ceding their dearest rights to the North, Carolina stood 
boldly out, the firm and unwavering advocate of Southern institu- 
tions. 

" Thus floated victoriously the first banner of Southern rights over 
the abolition town of Lawrence, unfurled by the noble sons of Caro- 
lina, and every whijj of its folds seemed a death stroke to Beecher 
propagandism and the fanatics of the East. O ! that its red folds 
could have been seen by every Southern eye ! 

"Mr. Jones listened to many entreaties and finally replied that it 
was beyond his power to do any thing, and gave the occupants so 
long to remove all private property from it. He ordered two com- 
panies into each printing office to destroy the press. Both presses 
were broken up and thrown into the street, the type thrown in the 
river, and all the material belonging to each office destroyed. After 
this was accomplished, and the private property removed from the 
hotel by the different companies, the cannon was brought in front 
of the house and directed their destructive blows upon the walls. The 
building caught on fire, and soon its walls came with a crash to the 
ground. Thus fell the abolition fortress ; and we hope this will teach 
the Aid Society a good lesson for the future." 

Then followed a promiscuous plunder and sacking of the 
town, from which the inhabitants had fled in terror. Stores 
were gutted, private houses pillaged, and what could not be 
borne away was destroyed by mutilation or smashing. This 
work of ruin was only stayed by the absolute weariness or 
drunkenness of the rioters, who were acting under the forms 
of territorial law. At night the heavens were lit up by the 
burning of Eobinson's fine house on Mount Oread. The drunk- 
en horde then disappeared bearing with them stolen wagons 
loaded with stolen plunder, drawn by stolen horses. 

What a picture for American citizens to contemplate ! The 
creatures who perpetrated this outrage upon law and upon so- 
ciety acted by virtue of the orders of United States authority, 
enforcing the mandates of a Chief Justice named by the Presi- 
dent and long after continued in office by him and his succes- 



OLD JOHN BEOWN". 489 

sor. The miscreants whose hands wrought the deed were in 
the pay of the recognized government, and were mostly armed 
with United States muskets. Governor Shannon made no inter- 
ference — the United States troops were not permitted to inter- 
pose, and the deed passed as a just retribution for the aboli- 
tionists. V Said Jones, as he witnessed the work of destruction : 
" This is the happiest day of my life. I determined to make 
the fanatics bow before me in the dust and to kiss the territo 
rial laws, and I have done it." 

After these proceedings there was an end of peace. The 
young and most ardent of the Free State settlers, stung to des- 
peration by their wrongs, apparently gave up all hopes of ani 
confraternity with the Southern rights' representatives, and 
with the resolve of men ready to test their principles with tlieii 
strength, took up arms to wage a war of extermination. Some 
of the leading citizens and most reputable settlers condemned, 
in strong terms, this reign of violence, and sought, by every 
means in their power, to stay it ; but without avail. A carni- 
val of robbery, pillage, arson and murder, succeeded. 

Old John Brown then first appeared, clearly outlined against 
the dark background, as the spirit of vengeance. Around him 
rallied a small troop of determined characters, who, led by the 
old man's invincible will, soon became a territorial terror. 
Brown's four sons had moved into Kansas early in the Spring 
of 1855 to become permanent residents, having with them val- 
uable stock, implements, &c., but no arms. Settling in Lykins 
county, on the Pottawattomie creek, about eight miles from 
Ossawattomie, they were exposed to the visits of marauders, 
and suffered so many outrages that the boys united in a letter 
to their father — a man then fifty -five years of age — urging him 
to come to them with arms for all. The old man heard " the 
call," and, by the help of Gerritt Smith, of New York State, 
proceeded to Kansas, accompanied by three more of his sons. 
He was in Lawrence during the " siege" ready for fight, but, 
the Free State men having resolved, after conference, not to be 
the first to precipitate the conflict, submitted peaceably, as we 
have seen, to the writs and violence of the territorial autliori- 
ties. /After the sacking of Lawrence Old John Brown entered 



< 



I 



490 THE KANSAS-NEBRASKA STRUGGLE. 

upon ''liis work" in earnest/ by leading a small company of 
resolute spirits with which to sweep over the Territory. The 
first act of his agents was to seize and slay a party of Southern 
desperados who, as a self constituted vigilance committee, Md. 
arranged to murder a number of Free State immigrants.; These 
desperados richly deserved death but the summary proceeding 
of Brown's men failed to command the assent of many of the 
settlers. The old man was not present at the slaughter, but 
endorsed it as necessary and just. This act aroused the Mis- 
gourians to new deeds of retaliation. / New invasions followed, 
more tragedies ensued, and the United States dragoons were 
called upon to disperse contending hosts of the two factions. 
The first "army" of Missourians, under command of one Et. 
Clay Pate, after committing many outrages ahd crimes, was 
bagged by Old Brown in a skirmish. Another and a more 
formidable force, gathered by Whitfield, then took the field. 
The town of Franklin became their rendezvous and depot. On 
it Old Brown fell during the night of June 2d, and captured 
the place with its stores. A gathering of forces followed, with 
the intent of fighting a pitched battle, which Brown was anx- 
ious to bring on ; but the Federal dragoons interfered and easi- 
ly induced the Missourians to retire. In leaving they took 
Ossawattomie in their course and sacked the town (.June 9th) 
with every mark of brutality. Says Dr. Gihon ; " There were 
but few men in the town, and the women and children were 
treated with the utmost brutality. Stores and dwellings were 
alike entered and pillaged. Trunks, boxes and desks were 
broken open, and their contents appropriated or destroyed. 
Even rings were rudely pulled from the ears and fingers of the 
women, and some of the apparel from their persons. The 
liquor found was freely drank, and served to incite the plun- 

* Says bis biographer, James Redpath : " He had only two objects iu going to 
Kansas : first, to begin the work for which, as he believed, he had been set apart, 
by so acting as to acquire the confidence of the friends of freedom, who might 
thereby subsequently aid him ; and, secondly, because to use his own language, 
' wiUi the exposures, privations, hardships and wants of pioneer life, he was fa- 
miliar, and thought he would benefit his children, and the new beginners from the 
older parts of the country, and help them to shift and contrive in their new 
liome.' " 



A REIGN OF TEREOR. 491 

derers to increased violence in the prosecution of their mis- 
chievous work. Having completely stripped the town, they 
set fire to several houses, and then beat a rapid retreat, carry- 
ing off a number of horses, and loudly calling each other to 
greater haste, as ' the d — d abolitionists were coming ! ' There 
are hundreds of well authenticated accounts of the cruelties 
practised by this horde of ruffians, some of them too shocking 
and disgusting to relate, or to be accredited, if told. The tears 
and shrieks of terrified women, folded in their foul embrace, 
failed to touch a chord of mercy in their brutal hearts, and the 
mutilated bodies of murdered men, hanging upon the trees, or 
left to rot upon the prairies or in the deep ravines, or furnish 
food for vultures and wild beasts, told frightful stories of bru- 
tal ferocity from which the wildest savages might have shrunk 
with horror." 

The state of aSairs during June and July was truly distress- 
ing. In all localities under jurisdiction of Southern or territo- 
rial emissaries, the families of Northern men suffered every de- 
gree of indignity. Numbers of citizens of Leavenworth were 
sent on board of steamers, without warning, and shipped down 
the river. Others were imprisoned and their possessions seiz- 
ed. All passengers arriving from below were searched, and, 
if Free State men, were robbed of their money and goods. It 
was truly a reign of the canaille. ' Life, liberty and the pur- 
suit of happiness' were permitted to no Free State man except 
as a special favor. The Federal authorities removed Colonel 
Sumner for his openly avowed disgust at the proceedings of 
the Missourians and the territorial officials. General Persifer 
F. Smith, a pro-slave partisan, was given the command and 
arrived in July just after the Topeka Legislature had been dis- 
persed by the United States' dragoons. This Legislature, it 
will be remembered, was adjourned to meet July 4th. It did 
so meet, but Colonel Sumner, acting' under orders from Wash- 
ington, entered Topeka on that day and forbade the assembly. 
The legislators therefore dispersed. " Governor" Eobinson and 
several others of the actors in the State movement having been 
arrested were imprisoned at that time, but ex-Governor Eeeder 
and James W. Lane, were fortunate enough to have escaped 



492 THE KANSAS-NEBRASKA STRUGGLE. 

the writs of Donalsou and made their way to Washington, to 
urge the adoption of the State Constitution by Congress. That 
Mr. Pierce did not order their arrest in the National Capital 
probably was owing to a fear of consequences. Yet, under tbe 
forms of the National Constitution in what respect had they 
sinned ? 

The contest in Congress was keenly renewed late in Junay 
In the House, the Committee on Territories, through Mr. Grow, 
its Chairman, reported a bill for the admission of Kansas as a 
State under the Constitution submitted. The debate which 
succeeded was acrimonious and persistent, and, after various 
manoeuvres by its opponents, the bill was lost : yeas 106 nays 
107. This vote was, by strenuous efforts of Northern men, 
reconsidered, and, on July 3d, the second vote on the act for 
admission resulted in its adoption : yeas 99, nays 97. 

The State movement fared adversely in the Senate. IMr 
Douglas, as Chairman of the Committee on Territories, report- 
ed a bill appointing five commissioners to take a census of the 
legal voters of the Territory ; the Territory to be apportioned 
into fifty-two districts, which should elect delegates to decide 
upon a State Constitution ; the delegates to meet in December, 
1856, and to have power to decide if it was expedient to form 
a Constitution ; and, if so, to proceed with the formation of 
that instrument. This bill was adopted July 8d, after an inef- 
fectual but tenacious opposition from the Northern free soil 
members. Being sent to the House, it remained on the Speak- 
er's table untouched at the day of adjournment, Aug. 18th. 
On the 8th of July Mr. Douglas reported the House bill to 
admit Kansas, and offered an amendment striking out all after 
its enacting clause, substituting the Senate bill above referred 
to as adopted July 8d. Against this the free soil Senators 
struggled Iruitlessly ; the substitute passed by the vote of yeas 
82, nays 13. This vote of course amounted to a rejection of 
the Kansas State Constitution, and in leaving the Shawnee 
Mission legislators in uncontrolled supremacy. How they ex- 
ercised that supremacy is written in the story of blood which 
we have had to record. 

But, the fifieuds of Free Kansas did not give over the strug- 



KANSAS BEFORE CONGRESS. 493 

gle in Congress. Having a bare majority in the House they 
sought, by various means, to restrain the Administration from 
pushing its cruel mandates to the extremes of enforcing the 
odious territorial laws. Yet, all efforts failed. There stood 
the heavy pro-slave majority of the Senate in the way, and no 
act for the relief of the oppressed people could pass a chamber 
so long accustomed to Southern rule that a free soil member 
was regarded as an interloper. In the House, however, was 
vested a power which even the Senate could not override nor 
the Executive defy. Toward the close of its turbulent and 
long-protracted session the annual appropriation bills came up. 
To these the House attached provisions calculated to effect 
what the due course of direct legislation could not accomplish. 
Provisos- were inserted abolishing, repealing or suspending the 
most obnoxious features of the territorial Legislature. These 
provisions the Senate resisted and successfully so, as far as 
general appropriations were concerned ; but, one item, of 
$20,000, to pay the next session of that infamous territorial 
legislative body was abandoned by the Senate in order to save 
the civil appropriation bill from total defeat. /But the two" 
Houses came to a dead lock on a proviso "forbidding the em- 
ployment of the army to enforce the acts of the Shawnee Mis- 
sion assemblage, claiming to be a territorial Legislature of 
Kansas, when at noon on the 18th of August the Speaker's 
hammer fell, announcing the termination of the session, leaving 
the army bill unpassed. But President Pierce immediately 
issued a proclamation convening an extra session on the 21st 
(Thursday), when the two Houses reconvened accordingly, and 
a full quorum of each was found to be present. The House 
promptly repassed the army bill, again affixing a proviso for- 
bidding the use of the army to enforce the disputed territorial 
laws, which proviso the Senate as promptly struck out, and 
the House as promptly reinserted. The Senate insisted on its 
disagreement, but asked no conference, and the House (Aug. 
22d) by a close vote decided to adhere to its proviso, yeas 97, 
nays 93 ; but one of the yeas (Bocock, of Va.) was so given in 
order to be able to move a 'reconsideration ; so that the true 
division was 96 to 94, which was the actual division on a mo- 
61 



494 THE KANSAS-NEBRASKA STRUGGLE. 

tlon by Mr. Cobb, of Ga., that tlie House recede from its posi- 
tion. Finally, a motion to reconsider was made and laid on 
the table; yeas 97, nays 96, and the House thereupon ad- 
journed." 

" The struggle for the passage of the bill with or without the 
proviso continued until Saturday, Aug. 80th, when, several 
members, hostile to the proviso, and hitherto absent, unpaired, 
having returned, the House again passed the Army bill with 
the proviso modified as follows : 

" ' Provided, however, that no part of the military force of the United 
States, for the support of -which appropriations are made by this act, 
shall be employed in aid of the enforcement of any enactments hereto- 
fore made by the body claiming to be the Territorial Legislature of 
Kansas.' 

" The bill passed as reported (under the previous question) : 
yeas 99, nays 79, and was sent to the Senate, where the above 
proviso was stricken out, yeas 26, nays 7, and the bill thus re- 
turned to the House, when the Senate's amendment was con- 
curred in, yeas 101, nays 97. 

" So the proviso was beaten at last, and the bill passed, with 
no restriction on the President's discretion in the u.se of the 
army in Kansas ; just as all attempts of the House to direct 
the President to have a nolle prosequi entered in the case of the 
Free State prisoners in Kansas charged with aiding the forma- 
tion and adoption of the Free State Constitution as aforesaid 
had been previously beaten, after prevailing in the House^ 
the Senate striking them out, and the House (by union of 
nearly all the supporters of Fillmore with nearly or quite all 
those supporting Buchanan) finally acquiescing.'" 

This result left the Free State party in Kansas under the 
ban of the law, and those in authority, for a few months, held 
wild riot in their success. Shannon was removed during Au- 
gust for incapacity and drunkenness. Woodson, his secretary, 
was acting Governor until the new appointee, John W. Geary, 
of Pennsylvania, should arrive. He was a wretched substitute, 
a leader of the Missouri raids, a servile tool of faction, and a 
bitter enemy of the Free State men. August 16th, just five 

» Political Text Book for 1860. 



RUFFIAN PROCLAMATIONS. 495 

days prior to his receiving the seal of office, Atchison, Colonel 
Boone, Colonel Eussell and " General" B. F. Stringfellow, had 
issued a circular from Westport, Missouri, announcing that 
James H. Lane had entered Kansas with a large army — had 
captured Lecompton, and had liberated the State prisoners 
there confined — had committed other acts demanding ven- 
geance. The circular therefore called upon all " true men." to 
rally to their several rendezvous, there to organize to meet the 
daring liberator.' This call Woodson repeated in a proclama- 
tion dated August 25th, declaring the Territory in a state of 
rebellion and insurrection and calling for help to put down the 
insurrectionists and to bring to condign punishment all who 
were engaged with them. It was all a well concerted pro- 
gramme, to sanction a second overwhelming invasion. This 
Governor's call found about eleven hundred ruffians already 
gathered at Little Santa Fe, on the Missouri border, who soon 
were on their mission of " extermination.", A section of Atch- 
ison's army, composed of about three hulAdred, with one field 
piece, advanced under command of General Eeed on Ossawat- 
tomie, hoping to capture Old John Brown, who was reported 
to be at that place with his body guard of about thirty meiL 
The wary old campaigner was not caught, however. He re- 
tired into the wood bordering the Marais des Cygnes creek, 

* A circular was issued, also, ia Lexington, Missouri, Aug. 17th, whose closing 
paragraph read : 

" Meet at Lexington on Wednesday, August 20, at 12 o'clock. Bring your horses, 
your guns and your clothing — all ready to go on to Kansas. Let every man who 
can possibly leave home, go now to save the lives of our friends. Let those who 
cannot go hitch up their wagons and throw in a few provisions, and get more as 
they come along by their neighbors, and bring them to Lexington on Wednesday. 
Let others bring horses and mules, and saddles and guns — all to come in on Wed- 
nesday. We must go immediately. There is no time to spare, and no one must 
hold back. Let us all do a little, and the job will be light. We want two hundred 
to three hundred men from this county. Jackson, Johnson, Platte, Clay, Ray, Sa- 
line, Carroll and other counties are now acting in this matter. All of them will 
send up a company of men, and there will be a concert of action. New Santa Fe, 
Jackson county, will be the place of rendezvous for the whole crowd, and our 
motto this time will be, " No quarter." Come up, then, on Wednesday, and let 
us have concert of action. Let no one stay away. We need the old men to advise, 
the young men to execute. We confidently look for eight hundred to one thousand 
citizens to be present." 



496 THE KANSAS-NEBRASKA STRUGGLE 

and, for three hours held the Missourians at baj. Not over- 
come, but in danger of being outflanked, he was compelled, 
under a sharp fire, to pass the creek, losing two of his party, 
killed. The Missourians' scouts, led by a preacher named 
White, a member of the Kansas Legislature, had, prior to the 
appearance of Eeid's force, come upon Brown's youngest son, 
Frederick, a boy of eighteen, and four others. These young 
men were not attached to any military command, .Young 
Brown was killed, together with one of his companions, who 
was shockingly mutilated. Another was left for dead in the 
road. Old Brown at that time was about two miles away, with 
only fifteen men. He fell back upon the town, hoping to de- 
fend it ; but, finding the enemy too powerful, he took to the 
woods, where, joined by twelve mounted men, he maintained 
the fight as above noted. 

After the " victory" Eeid's men entered the village, burned 
between twenty and thirty houses, robbed the post office, plun- 
dered the stores, seized all the horses, cattle and wagons, and, 
loaded with spoils made off in haste to Missouri to boast of 
having "wiped out another d — d -abolition hole." It cost the 
ruffians between twenty and thirty lives to secure that "glori- 
ous result." 

The main division of Atchison's forces marched toward Bull 
creek, to which spot Lane also directed his course with three 
hundred men. Before this array of Northern muskets the Mis- 
sourians retreated in haste, with a cowardice discreditable even 
to them. Thus this invasion temporarily ended. Lane then 
pushed on to Lecompton, whither a number of Free State men 
agam had been carried as prisoners. ' On the morning of Sept. 
4th he appeared, with his cannon, on Court House hill, com- 
manding the town. " General" Richardson refused to fight and 
threw up his commission in disgust at the running away of his 
constituents. Another "General" was found, who treated with 
Lane, agreeing to deliver up all the prisoners in his keeping. 
This he did, by sending them into Lawrence the next day, 
under an escort of United States dragoons ! Lane returned to 
Lawrence, but kept the field with his vigilant force until Gov- 
ernor Geary issued his Inaugural Address, and Proclamation 



THE BATTLE OF LAWRENCE. 497 

of Sept. 11th, 1856. These documents seemed so reassuring 
of peace that Lane disbanded his men and countermanded or- 
ders then dispatched to Lawrence for men and cannon to pro- 
ceed against a party of Missourians strongly housed at Hickory 
Point. The countermand came too late. Captain Harvey, 
with one hundred and ten men, left Lawrence Saturday, and, 
by a forced march, reached the point indicated, Sunday morn- 
ing. A short, sharp conflict resulted in the capture of the Mis- 
sourians, but Harvey's men were, in turn secured by a force 
of dragoons dispatched from Lecompton by orders of Governor 
Geary. The Governor regarded these men as the aggressors, 
and held them prisoners for trial. 

"^ At the moment these exciting incidents were transpiring 
great excitement prevailed in the vicinity of Lawrence. . The 
approach of a large body of Missourians was announced during 
Sunday."] As Lane and Harvey were absent with the best 
lighting material of the town much alarm was felt for its safety. 
Old John Brown, however, was in the place and, under his ac- 
tive direction the citizens of the town were put into the extem- 
porised defenses, while, with a force of about fifty riflemen. 
Brown proceeded to an advanced position on the prairie to 
engage the invaders. By five o'clock a considerable body of 
the Missouri " militia" had crossed the Wakarusa, These the 
Lawrence men soon engaged to advantage, and darkness came 
to find the fight pressed sharply by the riflemen. Though full 
three hundred strong, and mounted, the Missourians were out- 
manoeuvred by Brown's excellent arrangements and were forced 
to retire upon their main body, then at Franklin.. 

A messenger, dispatched in haste to the Governor, at Le- 
compton, informed him of this threatened attack. He at once 
ordered forward the dragoons under Colonel Cook, with in- 
structions to prevent a collision. Colonel Cook reached Law- 
rence Sunday evening to find the Lawrence men under Brown 
already engaging their enemy. Ordering, in the name of the 
Governor, the Missourians to retire to then- main camp beyond 
Franklin, the Colonel dispatched a messenger for the Governor, 
informing him that about twenty-seven hundred men were as- 
sembled only four miles from Lawrence, under command of 



498 THE KANSAS-NEBRASKA STRUGGLE. 

" Generals" Heiskell, Eeid, Atchison, EicViardson and String- 
fellow, " determined to exterminate that place (Lawrence) and 
all its inhabitants." Said Geary, in his dispatch to Mr. Marc\^ 
of Sept. 16th, 1856: " Fully appreciating the awfulcalamitiL'S 
that were impending, I hastened with all possible dispatcii to 
the encampment, assembled the ojEiicers of the militia, and in 
the name of the President of the United States, demanded sus- 
pension of hostilities. / I had sent in advance, the secretary and 
adjutant-general of the Territory, with orders to carry out the 
spirit and letter of my proclamations ; but, up to the time of 
my arrival, these orders had been unheeded, and I could dis- 
cover but little disposition to obey them. I addressed the 
officers in council at considerable length, setting forth the dis- 
astrous consequences of such a demonstration as was contem- 
plated, and the absolute necessity of more lawful and concilia- 
tory measures to restore peace, tranquillity and prosperity to 
the country. I read my instructions from the President, and 
convinced them that my whole course of procedure was in ac- 
cordance therewith, and called upon them to aid me in my ef- 
forts, not only'to carry o\it those instructions, but to support 
ajid enforce the laws, and the Constitution of the United States. 
I am happy to say, that a more ready concurrence in my views 
was met, than I had at first any good reason to expect. It 
was agreed, that the terms of my proclamations should be car- 
ried out by the disbandment of the militia; whereupon the 
camp was broken up, and the different commands sej)arated, 
to repair to their respective homes." 

Geary's arrival in the distracted Territory was, indeed, op 
portune. He was, seemingly, well qualified for his mission of 
peace. Had the President named him to the trust committed 
to the wretched Shannon, much of the tragedy of Kansas never 
would have been written. His first dispatch to the War De- 
partment, dated Sept. 9th, confessed affairs to be in a shocking 
condition. To show the reader that the record which we have 
presented has not exceeded or misconstrued the reality, we may 
quote from that communication : 

" I find that I have not simply to contend against bands of armed ruf- 
fians and brigands, whose sole aim and end is assassination and robbery 



Geary's first dispatch. 499 

— infatuated adherents and advocates of conflicting politica] sentiments 
and local institutions— and evil-disposed persons, actuated by a desire 
to obtain elevated positions ; but, worst of all, against the influence of 
men who have been placed in authority, and have employed all the de- 
structive agents around them to promote their own personal interests, 
at the sacrifice of every just, honorable and lawful consideration. 

" I have barely time to give you a brief statement of facts as I find 
them. The town of Leavenworth is now in the hands of armed bodies 
of men, who, having been enrolled as militia, perpetrate outrages of the 
most atrocious character under shadow of authority from the territorial 
Government. Within a few days these men have robbed and driven 
from their homes unoffending citizens ; have fired upon and killed others 
in their own dwellings ; and stolen horses and property under the pre- 
tence of employing them in the public service. They have seized per- 
sons who have committed no offense ; and, after stripping them of all 
their valuables, placed them on steamers, and sent them out of the Ter- 
ritory. Some of these bands, who have thus violated their rights and 
privileges, and shamefully and shockingly misused and abused the old- 
est inhabitants of the Territory, who had settled here with their wives 
and children, are strangers from distant States, who have no interest in, 
nor care for the welfare of Kansas, and contemplate remaining here only 
so long as opportunities for mischief and lolunder exist. 

'' The actual pro-slavery settlers of the Territory are generally as well 
disposed persons as are to be found in most communities. But there 
are among them a few troublesome agitators, chiefly from distant dis- 
tricts, who labor assiduously to keep alive the prevailing sentiment. 

" It is also true that among the free soil residents are many peaceable 
and useful citizens ; and if uninfluenced by aspiring demagogues, would 
commit no unlawful act. But many of these, too, have been rendered 
turbulent by officious meddlers from abroad. The chief of these is Lane, 
now encamped and fortified at Lawrence, with a force, it is said, of fif- 
teen hundred men. They are suflering for provisions, to cut off" the 
supplies of which, the opposing faction is extremely watchful and 
active. 

"In isolated or country places, no man's life is safe. The roads are 
filled with armed robbers, and murders for mere plunder are of daily 
occurrence. Almost every farm-house is deserted, and no traveller has 
the temerity to venture upon the highway without an escort." 

The reader will infer that the Governor's views, as to Lane's 
brigandism, underwent a change ere a month had passed, by 
which time he discovered that it tvas that leader's prowess alone 
which had saved the town of Lawrence from destruction and 
the Territory from utter subjugation by a foreign host. If the 



500 THE KANSAS-NEBRASKA STRUGGLE. 

Governor afterwards prosecuted Harvey's men, whom he held 
as prisoners to be tried as violators of the peace, it was because 
they were so ; and that he permitted the army assembled be- 
fore Lawrence for its destruction to depart, was for the reason 
that those ruffians were there by virtue of the proclamation of 
the acting Governor Woodson — therefore they could not be ar- 
rested. That the Lawrence people welcomed the Governor — 
that Lane hastened to obey the injunctions of Geary's inaugu- 
ral message and proclamation, are incidents which show the 
character of the Free State men ; while the curses heaped upon 
the Governor by the invaders and the pro-slave faction general- 
ly, are evidences of their innate dislike of law and peace. Says 
Dr. Gihon (who was the Governor's private secretary and ac- 
companied Geary to the scene of hostilities before Lawrence) : 

" There, in battle array, were ranged at least tliree thousand 
armed and desperate men. They were not dressed in the usual 
habiliments of soldiers, but in every imaginable costume that 
could be obtained in that western region. Scarcely two pre- 
sented the same appearance, while all exhibited a ruffianly as- 
pect. Most of them were mounted, and manifested an unmis- 
takable disposition to be at their bloody work. In the back- 
ground stood at least three hundred army tents and as many 
wagons, while here and there a cannon was planted, ready to 
aid in the anticipated destruction. Among the banners floated 
black flags to indicate the design that neither age, sex nor con- 
dition would be spared in the slaughter that was to ensue. 
The arms and cannon also bore the black indices of extermi- 
nation. 

" In passing along the lines, murmurs of discontent and sav- 
age threats of assassination fell upon the Governor's ears ; but, 
heedless of these, and regardless, in fact, of everything but a 
desire to avert the terrible calamity that was impending, he 
fearlessly proceeded to the quarters of their leader. * * * To 
Atchison, he especially addressed himself, telling him that 
when he last saw him he was acting as Vice President of the 
Nation, and President of the most dignified body in the world, 
the Senate of the United States ; but now with sorrow and pain 
he saw him leading on to a civil and disastrous war an army 



GEARY BAFFLED. 601 

of men, with uncontrollable passions, and determined upon 
wholesale slaughter and destruction. He concluded his re- 
marks by directing attention to his proclamation, and ordered 
the army to be disbanded and dispersed. Some of the more 
judicious of the officers were not only willing but anxious to 
obey this" order ; whilst others, resolved upon mischief, yielded 
a very reluctant assent. General Clarke said he was for pitch- 
ing into thq United States troops, if necessary, rather than 
abandon the objects of the expedition. General Maclean didn't 
see any use of going back until they had whipped the d — d 
abolitionists. Sheriff Jones was in favor, now they had a suf- 
ficient force, of " wiping out" Lawrence and all the Free State 
towns. And these and others, cursed Governor Geary in not 
very gentle expressions, for his untimely interference with their 
well laid plans. They, however, obeyed the order, and retired, 
not as good and law-loving citizens, but as bands of plunderers 
and destroyers, leaving in their wake rained fortunes, weeping 
eyes and sorrowing hearts." 

The history of Geary's brief administration is one of exceed- 
ing novelty, as illustrative of the peculiar faculty for crime and 
disorder of the pro-slave partisans and the extraordinary facili- 
ty with which the Judges, United States Attorney and Marshal 
baffled the Governor's endeavors to bring criminals to justice. 
Only in a few instances did the Executive succeed in securing 
the trial of men whose hands were red with Free State blood ; 
but, even in the case of these awful criminals, Judge Lecompte's 
acceptance of worthless bail, or a pro-slave and packed jury, 
soon relieved the prison of its just prey. Yet, there was great 
progress toward order, and, by a rigid surveillance of the mu- 
nicipal and preliminary jurisdictions, a flattering state of affairs 
rapidly succeeded the Governor's efforts. An election, ordered 
by proclamation, came off October 6th. It was to elect mem- 
bers of the territorial House of Kepresentatives, a delegate to 
Congress and also to decide upon the question of a State Con- 
vention. About twenty-five hundred votes were polled — al- 
most exclusively by pro-slave men. The members elect were, 
therefore, of the old order of things, Whitfield was re-elected 
as delegate, and the Shawnee Mission laws were triumphant 
62 



502 THE KANSAS-NEBRASKA STRUGGLE. 

In this election the Free State men did not participate, as their 
policy, at that time, was to ignoi-e the entire territorial govern- 
ment as a usurpation and a foreign body. They still adhered 
to their Topeka State organization, although it was outlawed 
and powerless. The Governor made an extended tour through 
the Territory, consuming the time from Oct 17th to ^ov. 8th. 
He reported to the War Department a favorable feeling, and 
spoke hopefully of the futilre. On the 20th of Nov. a large 
meeting of citizens was held in Leavenworth City, at which, 
among other resolutions passed, were the following : 

" Resolved, That we cordially approve any and all measures that may 
have a tendency to restore j^eace and harmony among tlie citizens of 
Kansas ; that in view of the jjast and impressed with the importance of 
the present, we earnestly imjjlore our fellow-citizens, without distinction 
of party, to aid in the preservation of peace and order by adopting a 
policy of conciliation. 

" Resolved, That whatever difference of opinion may prevail touching 
the circumstances that resulted in the adoption of existing laws, we 
deem it the dutj' of every man to suj^port and sustain these laws, in 
preference to having no laws at all, and continuing the anarchy that has 
too long prevailed. 

" Resolved, that we believe the existing territorial laws contain pro- 
visions that should be repealed, and we have confidence that the Legis- 
lature, at the next session, will, with a sj^irit of justice and moderation, 
correct oiipre&sive legislation." 

The meeting of the "adjourned session' of the Topeka Leg- 
islature came off Jan. 6th, 1857. It was arranged by the Gov- 
ernor to dissolve the assembly simply by proclamation, with 
troops in reserve at Lecompton to enforce his order if it were 
resisted. But, " Sheriff" Jones pressed his unwelcome presence 
upon the public once more. Having obtained from Judge 
Cato writs for the arrest of the legislators for treason, he pro- 
ceeded to Topeka on the opening day and served his j)rocesses. 
No opposition was offered, greatly to Jones' discomfiture. He 
had calculated upon a resistance to his oflGicious intermeddling, 
and a second outbreak in consequence — thus deranging the. 
Governor's peaceful programme. Quiet submission to arrest 
averted the solicited outbreak and preserved the peace. . Pre- 
vious to this descent of the vulture the legislators had assem- 
bled in informal meeting and prepared a second memorial to 



THE LECOMPTON ASSEMBLY. 503 

Congress. As prisoners of State tlie assemblymen were con- 
veyed by Jones to Tecumseh and were kept under arrest until 
the next day, w^lien all were admitted to bail on their own re- 
cognizances. A nolle prosequi afterwards was entered by the 
district attorney, and thus the designed outrage ended as a 
farce. The whole proceeding met with Geary's disapproval. 

The Shawnee Mission Territorial Assembly convened at 
Lecompton Jan. 12th, 1857 — the Mission having ceased to be 
the capital. Governor Geary sent in his message. It was a 
document of so much force and pertinency as greatly to excite 
the Assembly. The Governor denounced their "territorial 
militia," and refused to regard their " law and order" jDartisans 
otherwise than as bandits. He also failed to denounce the 
Free State settlers for having arms and using them in their own 
defense. Six thousand copies of the unpalatable message were 
ordered to be printed, but the printers of State (the Lecompton 
Union of&ce) conveniently neither had paper nor types for the 
performance of the order — hence, the message was not circu- 
lated. A secret caucus of the members resolved to disregard 
the Governor's apprehended vetoes of their pre-determined leg- 
islation, and afterwards acted upon the understanding by re- 
passing at once every vetoed act. As already stated, the legis- 
lators, exercising the rights of "sovereigns," had passed acts 
stripping the Governor of all power except what was vested in 
him by the Organic act ; but this act was so printed and con- 
strued as to deny him the usual power of pardon or remission 
of sentence. Then the rogues resolved to use their usurped 
authority by depriving him of the veto power itself! Said Dr. 
Gihon : " The Governor was apprised of this fact, but scarcely 
believing so infamous a measure possible, attempted to arrest 
several bills, by offering the most tangible objections, which 
only served to excite the merriment of members and call down 
upon his own head the most violent anathemas. Indeed, the 
greater portion of the time of the session was taken up with 
long speeches denunciatory of his Excellency for his supposed 
impartiality, or, rather, his unwillingness to ' go in' heart and 
soul, with all his ability, influence and power, to advance the 
interests of the pro-slavery cause. So entirely were they de 



504 THE KANSAS-NEBRASKA STRUGGLE. 

voted to this peculiar object, that it was a common expression 
of the idlers of the town, when no better employment was on 
hand, to say to each other, ' Come, let us go over to the House 
to hear Jenkins,' or Brown, or Anderson, or O'Driscoll, or 
Johnson, or some other prominent orator, 'abuse the Gov- 
ernor.' " 

Thus passed the term of this session of drunkards — a body 
of bad men chiefly directed by such designing knaves as At- 
chison, Woodson, Whitfield, Stringfellow, Calhoun, etc., who, 
in turn, were but ministers of that powerful pro-slave coterie 
at Washington which controlled President, Cabinet and Senate. 
The entire legislation proved so corrupt, so wicked, so repug- 
nant to every sense of justice as to shock even the legislators 
themselves when they had time to dissipate the fumes of Jack 
Thompson's whiskey. Their acts stand on the historic record 
only as additional evidence of the disgusting debasement of 
all law and justice at the hands of those "friends of Southern 
institutions." And that class only was recognised by the Pre- 
sident as law-givers for the Territory ! The story of that Win- 
ter is so filled with violence and blood, personal outrages upon 
the Governor and his friends, infamous ofiicial proceedings and 
defilement of all the avenues of law, as to render its repetition 
humiliating. We pass it over with the sense of relief whicli 
one experiences when conscious that a leper has ceased to taint 
the air with his presence. 

To one act we must refer, owing to its connection with suc- 
ceeding political events of vital significance. The Legislature 
was supplied (from Washington it is said) with a census bill, 
providing for an enumeration of the inhabitants as preliminary 
to an election of delegates to a Convention for forming a State 
Constitution. The bill possessed highly objectionable features, 
and the Governor asked a conference with the chairmen of the 
House and Council Committees. The act, as then matured, 
forbid the people of the State to vote upon the Constitution, 
after its adoption by the Convention. This popular exclusion 
was engrafted upon the act to prevent the Free State expres- 
sion, and was so confessed to the Governor by the chairmen, 
in their conference. They stated, in their interview with Geary, 



THE LECOMPTON CENSUS ACT. 505 

that the question of submission to a vote of the people had 
been fully considered, and that it would not be admitted since 
it "would defeat the only object of the act, which was to se- 
cure, beyond any possibility of failure, the Territory of Kansas 
to the South as a Slave State. Any alteration in the bill would 
be fatal to their projects. Even should they allow the Spring 
immigration to take part in the election, their plans would be 
frustrated. This, they said, was their last hope, and they could 
not let the opportunity pass unimproved. They had already, 
in anticipation of the passage of the bill, so apportioned the 
Territory, and made such other preliminary arrangements, thai 
the success of this grand project was placed beyond the read 
of any contingency that might now occur." The census act, 
therefore, passed as first ordered. Geary vetoed it in a mes- 
sage setting forth, with much force and with perfect conclu- 
sions, its injustice and violation of all precedent ; but, the As- 
sembly repassed it without hesitation, over the veto, and it be- 
came the law. Under that act the mockery of a true census 
was taken — the Legislature naming all the processes of the 
enumeration, the officers, &c. Governor Geary, sickened and 
dismayed at this reign of faction, and obtaining from Washing- 
ton only implied censure for his " obstinacy," resigned, under 
date of March 4th — the resignation to take effect March 20th. 
He was forced to this step apparently by circumstances which 
could have been averted only by his utter abjuration of self- 
respect and honesty. That his reign was one of designed good 
is not now gainsayed : if he accomplished but little it was be- 
cause he labored without co-operation, and, ultimately, was 
left helpless before the power of the most wicked and most 
reckless body of legislators ever recognized by a civilized gov- 
ernment. 

How the census act was enforced we are told by numerous 
writers. All agree that it had not even the farce of form to 
commend it ; it was a mockery unworthy even of " border ruf- 
fian" dishonesty. Out of thirty-eight organised counties but 
twenty-six were entered for representation in the Constitution- 
al Convention. Of these twenty-six the actual census was 
taken in ten only. In some of these ten only a partial enume- 



506 THE KANSAS- NEBRASKA STRUGGLE 

ration was made. In six other counties the poll list was made 
up from the old jpoU hooks! No registry was made in the fine 
and well settled counties south of the Kansas river, for they 
were peopled with Free State families. By this manipulation 
of the " territorial authorities," quite three-fifths of the people 
were given no voice in the election of delegates. A strong 
pro-slave delegation of course was returned. So outrageous 
was the entire proceeding that, in counties where the Free State 
men were permitted to vote, they refused to participate and the 
election was all on one side. Yet, James Buchanan, President 
of the United States, in referring to this abstinence charged it 
to a revolutionary spirit, at the same time characterising the 
census act as, in the main, fair and just ! Let us quote his 
words : 

" On the 19tli of February previous, the territorial Legislature had 
passed a law providing for the election of delegates on the first Mon- 
day of June, to a convention to meet on the first Monday in Sei^tember, 
for the purpose of framing a Constitution preparatory to admission into 
the Union, This law was in the main fair and just ; and it is to be re- 
gretted that all the qualified electors had not registered themselves and 
voted under its provisions. 

" At the time of the election for delegates, an extensive organization 
existed in the Territory, whose avowed object it was, if need be, to put 
down the lawful government by force, and to establish a government of 
their own, under the so-called Topeka Constitution. The persons at- 
tached to this revolutionary organization abstained from taking any 
part in the election." 

They did abstain ; for what citizen, respecting the boon of 
an elective franchise, could participate in that prostitution of it 
to the most undemocratic ends ? The opinion, however, pre- 
vailed — and that opinion was sustained by the new Governor, 
Robert J. Walker, late of Mississippi — that the Constitution, 
by the Organic act, must be submitted to a vote of the people. 
The Free State men, therefore, were satisfied to await the vote 
upon ratification when they might, as legal voters, put their 
veto upon the whole " territorial" proceeding. It was enough 
for them to reply to Governor Walker's earnest request for 
them to go the polls June 15th, 1857, to vote for delegates, 
that in nineteen out of thirty-eight counties no registry even 
had been made, and that, in fifteen of the nineteen counties, no 



FIRST FREE STATE TRIUMPH. 507 

census had been taken— hence those counties could not be rep- 
resented in the Convention. As those counties, lying south 
of the Kansas river, were filled with Free State towns and were 
teeming with Free State industry, it is not a matter of surprise 
that the friends of the Topeka Free State movement abstained 
from the mockery of voting for delegates to that prescriptive 
Convention. 

The entire vote cast at the election for delegates was but 
2200. The delegates elect assembled in Convention at Le- 
compton, Sept. 6th, but soon adjourned over to October, to 
await the result of the territorial election on the first Monday 
of that month. At this territorial election both parties nomi- 
nated candidates. At the request of Governor Walker, two 
thousand U. S. troops were in the Territory, and they were 
stationed so as to protect the polls as much as possible. Over 
eleven thousand votes were polled, after rejecting twenty-eight 
hundred as fraudulent and irregular, sixteen hundred of which 
were returned from the Oxford precinct, where, according to 
the census, there were but forty-three voters, and twelve hun- 
dred from McGee county, where no poll was opened. The re- 
sult of this election was the Free State party carried the Legis- 
lature and the delegate to Congress. 

" The Convention reassembled in October, according to ad- 
journment, and formed the Constitution now so famous as the 
Lecompton Constitution. When it became known that the 
Convention had refused to submit the entire Constitution to a 
vote of the people for ratification or rejection, and had submit- 
ted only a proposition in regard to slavery, and that in a form 
and under a test oath which would prevent the Free State 
people from voting, there was great excitement in the Territo- 
ry, threatening bloodshed. Under these circumstances acting 
Governor Stanton called (Governor Walker had resigned) an 
extra session of the territorial Legislature. The Legislature 
assembled Dec. 17th, and passed an act to submit the Lecomp- 
ton Constitution fairly to a vote of the people on the 4th of 
January next, following, the time fixed by the Lecompton 
Convention for the election of State officers under that Consti- 
tution. 



508 THE KANSAS-NEBRASKA STRUGGLE.' 

"On the 21st of Dec. the vote was taken in the manner pro- 
ficribed by the Convention, and resulted as follows : 

•' ' For the Constitution witli Slavery' - - - - 6266 

" ' For the Constitution without Slavery' - - - 567 . 

" Total vote, 6793 

" Jan. 4th, 1858, in accordance with the act of the territorial 
Legislature, the people voted as follows : 

" For the Lecompton Constitution with Slavery - - 138 
" " " without Slavery - 24 

" Against the Lecompton Constitution - - - 10,226 
" Being over ten thousand majority against the Lecompton 
Constitution." * 

Here we have, in brief, the whole story of the celebrated 
"Lecompton Constitution." It was born of a Convention ille- 
gally constituted, contained features repugnant to the sense of 
the people, was sought to be forced upon the people despite 
their wishes, but, when they came to vote squarely on it, the 
thing was rejected by the overwhelming majority of over ten 
thousand ! Yet, despite this emphatic expression, James Bu- 
chanan used his tremendous influence as President to constrain 
Congress to accept the repudiated instrument. One month 
after that contemptuous rejection of it by the people, to wit: 
on Feb. 2d, 1858, he transmitted the Lecompton instrument to 
CoDgress, accompanied by a carefully prepared and labored 
argument urging its acceptance. In that Executive endorse- 
ment the President assumed the office of patron to the pro-slave 
faction. His words were : 

" When we speak of the affairs of KansdS, we are apt to refer merely 
to the existence of two violent political parties in that Territory, divid- 
ed on the question of slavery, just as we speak of such parties in the 
States. This presents no adequate idea of the true state of the case. 
The dividing line there, is not between two political parties, both ac- 
knowledging the lawful existence of the Government, but between those 
who are loyal to this Government and those who have endeavored to 
destroy its existence by force and by usurpation — between those who 
sustain, and those who have done all in their power to overthrow, the 
Territorial Government established by Congress. This Government they 
would long since have subverted had it not been protected from their 

> Political Text Book for 1860. 



Buchanan's LIBELS. 509 

assaults by the trooiDs of the United States. Such has been the condi- 
tion of affairs since my inauguration. Ever since that j^eriod a large 
portion of the people of Kansas have been in a state of rebellion against 
the Government, with a military leader at their head, of most turbulent 
and dangerous character. They have never acknowledged, but have 
constantly renounced and defied, the Government to which they o^Ve 
allegiance, and have been all the time in a state of resistance against its 
authority. They have all the time been endeavoring to subvert it and to 
establish a revolutionary Government, under the so-called Topeka Con- 
stitution, in its stead. Even at this very moment, the Topeka Legisla- 
ture are in session. Whoever has read the correspondence of Governor 
Walker with the State Department, recently communicated to the Sen- 
ate, will be convinced that this picture is not overdrawn." 

All of wliich either was wilful prevarication of the truth, or 
a shocking misapprehension of the character of the Free State 
settlers' resistance. Thej proposed to subvert no just autho- 
rity, for, to call that territorial Assembly a "Government" was 
degradiag to the idea. Nor was the "revolutionary" Topeka 
movement illegal. It was a clearly constitutional assoeiation, 
and had a perfect right to memorialize Congress as an informal 
body-other than that it never had nor ever preferred any claims. 
The force in the field under Lane was composed of men resolv- 
ed, not upon revolution but upon obtaining order and rights 
guaranteed by the Organic act itself — the rights of actual set- 
tlers to make their own laws and to dictate the institutions of 
the new State. That this class of men thus libeled by the 
President constituted the immense majority of the people not 
only was proven by the vote of Jan. 4th, 1858, but by the suc- 
ceeding vote of Aug. 3d, 1858, referred to hereafter — evidence 
not to be gainsay ed. But, overwhelming as was this voice of 
the "squatter sovereigns," it failed to convince President, Cab- 
inet, and the Southern party in Congress, and Kansas was 
doomed to a further two years' struggle to obtain what was 
clearly her rights and for her best interests. 

One act of the Lecompton instrument as sent into the Senate 
for ratification was of four sections, as follows : 

" § 1. The right of property is before and higher than any constitu- 
tional sanction, and the right of the owner of a slave to such a slave 
and its increase is the same, and is inviolable, as the right of the ovvner 
of any property whatever. 

63 



510 THE KANSAS-NEBEASKA STRUGGLE. 

" § 2. The Legislature shall have no power to pass laws for the eman- 
cipation of slaves without the consent of their owners, or without pay- 
ing their owners, previous to emancipation, a full equivalent in money 
for the slaves so emancipated. They shall have no power to prevent 
emigrants to the State from bringing with them such persons as are 
deemed slaves by the laws of any one of the United States or Territories 
so long as any persons of the same age or description shall be continued 
slaves by the laws of this State ; provided, that such ijerson or slave be 
the honajide property of such emigrant; and provided, also, that laws 
may be passed to prohibit the introduction of slaves into this State who 
have committed high crimes in other States or Territories. They shall 
have power to jjermit the owners of slaves to emancipate them, saving 
the rights of creditors, and jDreventing them from becoming a public 
charge. They shall have power to oblige the owners of slaves to treat 
them with humanity — to j^i'ovide for their necessary food and clothing 
— to abstain from all injuries to them, extending to life or limb — and, 
in case of neglect or refusal to comply with the direction of such laws, 
to have such slave or slaves sold for the benefit of the owner or owners. 

" § 3. In the prosecution of slaves for crimes of higher grade than petit 
larceny, the Legislature shall have no power to deprive them of an im- 
partial trial by a petit jury, 

" § 4. Any person who shall dismember or deprive a slave of life shall 
suflFer such punishment as would be inflicted in case the like oifense had 
been committed on a free white person, and on the like proof, except in 
case of insurrection of such slave." 

It was this provision alone which the Convention resolved 
to submit to the registered voters, Dec. 21st, 1857, with the re- 
sult already chronicled. The reader will not fail to observe 
this feature of that election : the ballots were " Constitution 
with Slavery" and " Constitution with no Slavery" — a vote for 
either being, a vote to adopt the Constitution^ orHj rejecting, in 
the latter ballot, the sections in regard to slavery. By what 
process of reasoning could the Northern settlers be required to 
vote on that specially privileged occasion ? Yet, for not so 
voting, they were censured by the President as malcontents ! 
The feature above adverted to was but one of several odious 
proscriptions of the Lecompton instrument. Provisions were 
inserted to render any possible Free State majority or vote 
powerless to change the "peculiar institution." 

This Constitution, as submitted by the President, was re- 
ported on favorably in the Senate, by the Committee on Ter- 



LECOMPTON BILL IN COITGIIESS. 511 

ritories, wlio introduced, Feb. ITth, an act known as the Le- 
compton bill, accepting the Constitution as submitted, defining 
the boundaries of the new State and giving it its apportionment 
in the House. This bill passed the Senate March 23d, 1858, 
by the vote thirty-three to twenty-five — Mr. Douglas voting in 
the negative. John J. Crittenden, of Kentucky, offered and 
pressed a substitute for the bill, providing in substance that the 
Constitution be submitted to the people at once, and, if ap- 
proved, the President to admit Kansas by proclamation. If 
rejected, the people to call a Convention and frame a Constitu- 
tion, The substitute made special provision against frauds at 
the election. 

This was lost by a vote of yeas 24, nays 34 The bill as 
passed by the Senate was taken up in the House April 1st, 
when, after various efforts to strangle it, a substitute was of- 
fered similar in character and language with that submitted by 
Mr. Crittenden in the Senate. This was, finally, adopted, by 
a vote of 120 to 112. With this bill the Senate resolved at 
once (April 2d) to disagree, by a vote of 34 to 22. The House 
thereupon voted (April 7th) to adhere to its amendment, by 
the vote of 119 to 111. On the 13th of April the Senate voted 
to insist on its resolve to disagree, and asked for a committee 
of conference, by the vote 30 to 24. To this the House tried 
to reply by a second vote on adherence, with a call for the pre- 
vious question. This call was lost by the casting vote of the 
Speaker, when Mr. English, of Indiana, moved the appoint- 
ment of a committee of conference, calling the previous ques- 
tion on the motion. This prevailed by the casting vote of the 
Speaker. The conference was then accepted. It resulted in 
the adoption of a new scheme, submitting the Constitution to 
a direct vote of the people of Kansas, Aug. 3d, 1858, and pro- 
viding, if the Lecompton instrument was accepted^ very liberal 
donations of land ; if it was not accepted the act provided that 
Kansas then should not be permitted to come in as a State un- 
til she should actually have 93,340 inhabitants. Mark the re- 
sult. Notwithstanding the bribe offered in lands — notwith- 
standing the threat to keep the Territory in its embryo condi- 
tion for years, the vote was over ten thousand majority against 



512 THE KANSAS-NEBRASKA STRUGGLE. 

the Lecompton Constitution. That election determined, beyond 
any question, the character and purposes of the vast majority 
of Kansas' inhabitants, and demonstrated to a certainty how 
meagre was the number of settlers and authorised voters who 
had, by the aid of Government bayonets, reigned in terror over 
the land. But even that expression failed to stay the hand of 
oppression in its design to make Kansas a Slave State, and in 
defiance of the promised rights guaranteed by the Organic Act, 
that immense majority was doomed to a further prolongation 
of the reign of ignorance and vice called the Lecompton Legis- 
lature. 

Governors were rapidly changed. Walker resigned in dis- 
gust and indignation in the Summer of 1858. His secretarj'-, 
Stanton, reigned a brief period only, to enter his most solemn 
protest against the Southern order of affairs. Denver assumed 
the oflEice to find it too much even for his faith in the Admin- 
istration. He was followed, in the Fall of 1858, by Samuel 
Medary, the "wheel horse" of Ohio Democracy, whose rule was 
a commingled record of folly and inefficiency. He was chosen 
to "sustain the Administration" — as if, in the face of an over- 
whelming Free State population, any Governor, or even Fede- 
ral bayonets could compel that population to accept the Le- 
compton reign ! During Denver's, and the first months of 
Medary's term of of&ce, intense excitement • prevailed in the 
Southern counties. ^ In the Summer of 1856 all Free State 
settlers were driven from that section, abandoning claims, cul- 
tivated fields and houses. These were seized and appropriated 
by the Missouri borderers. Becoming reassured by their great- 
ly increased numbers, the Northern immigrants, during the 
Summer following, began to return to their old possessions, to 
find them tenanted by Missourians. They resolved to settle 
upon their original claims and then to submit their squatter 
rights to the Land Ofiice for decision. Seeing this, and deter- 
mined to prevent Northern men from getting a hold upon the 
counties — for, once there, what should prevent the " Yankees" 
from swarming over into the fine domain of the Indian Terri- 
tory ? — the Southern men conspired for a second stand against 
their free soil emigration. Fort Scott was used as headquarters, 



Montgomery's opTiiRATiONS. 513 

from which, and the countrj adjacent, sallied parties who com- 
mitted atrocities of the most cold blooded nature. Cattle and 
other property were first stolen to provoke an outbreak, when, 
under the old dodge of writs from " the authorities," Federal 
bayonets could be called into requisition to enforce the South- 
ern ■ programme. All this worked auspiciously for awhile. 
But, a " Free State Squatter Court" organized early in Novem- 
ber, whose summary justice sent terror into the pro-slave ranks. 
A deputy U. S. Marshal, with a strong jposse^ essayed to break 
up the court, but was repulsed ; when the United States forct^s 
were ordered out by Governor Denver to assist in suppressing 
the 'illegal and riotous combination.' At this call Lane again 
took the field, and, for a moment there threatened a decisive 
civil war. This attitude of the Free State men alarmed both 
the Governor and the Missourians, and no attempt was made 
to enforce any Fort Scott processes of arrest or ejectment. A 
bitter partisan war followed, and Captain James Montgomery 
entered the service to catch and punish any Missouri assassin 
prowling around the settlement. Several shocking murders 
occurred during the Winter of 1857-8, perpetrated by bands 
led, in some instances, by members of the Lecompton Legisla- 
ture. Montgomery succeeded in securing several of these ban- 
dits, and, it is said, made short work of them. He was, at 
length, pursued (in April, 1858) by a body of dragoons from 
the Fort. These, with eight sharp shooters, he repulsed, kill- 
ing one and wounding five. Governor Denver then again de- 
termined to " suppress" the guerilla, and dispatched a messen- 
ger to the Fort to arrange plans for Montgomery's capture. 
This was answered satisfactorily, by the officer in command, 
and the messenger started on his return, bearing a letter de- 
tailing arrangements for the capture. This unluckily fell 
into Montgomery's hands. He opened the epistle and reen- 
closed it, accompanied by a note to the Governor, stating that 
he had only to protect Free State settlers in their rights 
and their peace to secure his withdrawal from the field — that, 
until such time, he would not permit his band to be dissolved. 
The dreadful massacre of the Marais des Cygnes creek suc- 
c<!eded. Hamilton, a member of the Lecompton Legislature, 



514 THE KANSAS-NEBRASKA STRUGGLE. 

entered the Territory at tlie head of twentj-five men, passed to 
the settlements on the creek, seized eleven settlers, took them 
into a retired spot, formed them into a line and shot them. 
Five were killed, five wounded and one escaped by feigning 
death. The ruffians retired, unmolested, from their deed of 
blood ; nor was any action ever taken in the matter by Gov- 
ernor or President. This aroused a feeling of intense animosi- 
ty in the breasts of Northern men. Captain Montgomery 
found his strength fully equal to any, emergency, but no action 
for retaliation followed. Governor Denver, alarmed for the 
peace of the Territory, hastened to Montgomery's quarters, and, 
through the co-operation of Free State men, induced the 
Captain to sign a treaty of amnesty, in which it was agreed 
tliat the past should be forgotten — that all obnoxious officers 
should be removed, all processes destroyed, and no more dis- 
turbance permitted. All of which, for a while, seemed to an- 
swer a good purpose. Montgr.nv^ ' men return ed to their 
homes ; the Captain himself worked his farm in peace. But, 
in October the slave power broke out anew. lA court assem- 
bled at Fort Scott found a jury to indict the Captain and a 
number of his men. A reign of violence ensued. With a 
resolution characteristic of the times, Montgomery gathered a 
party of resolute followers, proceeded to the fort, seized court 
and jury, burned the indictments and thus ended that tribunal 
of territorial dignitaries. The settlements were once again 
under arms. Marauders from Missouri came in, eager for 
plunder and still anxious to "wipe out the abolitionists." Old 
John Brown took the field and fortified several good positions 
on the Little Osage river and the Little Sugar creek, not far 
from the Missouri border, where he might watch the " enemy." 
Montgomery also prepared for a renewal of his guerilla ope- 
rations. Against both of these restless and uncompromising 
haters of the Missourians, the Free State men north of the 
Kansas began to experience a feeling of distrust, and many of 
that class, it is asserted, volunteered in a Sheriff 's ^06se, dis- 
patched by the new Governor, Medary, to arrest the two 
Captains as disturbers of the peace. The adventure failed, 



OLD brown's "invasion." ,515 

for both Brown and Montgomery were absent from tlieir quar- 
ters when the descent was made. 

One of the latter's men was seized and imprisoned in Fort 
Scott. Dec. 16th, Montgomery, with one hundred and fifty 
followers, made his sudden appearance at the fort and released 
the Free State partisan. This act greatly incensed the Gov- 
ernor. He ordered down from Fort Leavenworth four compa- 
nies of dragoons, and called into the field four companies of 
independent militia. '\ These assembled at Fort Scott. A largo 
body of Missourians gathered on the border ready to co-operate 
in the threatened arrest of every Free State man found in arms 
or who had participated in the rescue of Montgomery's man. 
Thus matters indeed looked serious, for, both guerilla Cap- 
tains were resolved to fight to the last. Suddenly, dispatch- 
es arrived from Washington, ordering a recal of the troops. 
The dragoons returned to Leavenworth, while the militia dis- 
banded. But, a body of Missourians having taken possession 
of the house of a blacksmith named Snyder, near the scene of 
the Marais des Cygnes butchery, the owner of the cabin fell 
upon it; the Missourians refused to surrender and opened fire 
on the Free State party. Snyder set fire to the premises and 
four of the inmates were consumed. 

John Brown, watching the still powerful body of Missouri- 
ans assembled at Falls' store, only eight miles from his quarters 
in Bourbon county, now performed an act which, at the time, 
created more of a sensation than any event of the year — 'firing 
the Southern heart' to a degree of eruptive fury. He invaded 
Missouri and ran off the slaves of two plantations. His story 
of the liberation we may repeat : 

" On Sunday, December 19, a negro man called Jim came over to tlie 
Osage settlement, from Missouri, and stated that he, together -witli 
his wife, two children and auotlier negro man, was to be sold within a 
day or two, and begged for help to get away. On Monday, (the follow- 
ing) night, two small companies were made up to go to Missouri and 
forcibly liberate the five slaves, togethes with other slaves. One of these 
companies I assumed to direct. We proceeded to the place, surrounded 
the buildings, liberated the slaves, and also took certain jJroperty sup- 
posed to belong to tlie estate. 

" We, however, learned, before leaving, that a portion of the articles 



516 THE KANSAS-NEBEASKA STRUGGLE. 

we had tiken belonged to a man living on the plantation, as a tenant, 
and who was supposed to have no interest in the estate. We promptly 
returned to him all we had taken. "We then went to another plantation, 
where we found five more slaves, took some property and two white 
men. We moved all slowly away into the Territory for some distance, 
and then sent the white men back, telling them to follow us as soon as 
they chose to do so. The other company freed one female slave, took 
some property, and, as I am informed, killed one white man (the mas- 
ter), who fought against the liberation." 

The old campaigner thereupon instituted " a parallel," re- 
calling the Marais des Cygnes massacre, in these significant 
terms : 

"Eleven persons are forcibly restored to their natural and inaliesiable 
rights, with but one man killed, and all ' hell is stirred from beneath.' 
It is currently reported that the Governor of Missouri has made a re- 
quisition upon the Governor of Kansas for the delivery of all such as 
were concerned in the last-named ' dreadful outrage.' The Marshal of 
Kansas is said to be collecting a posse of Missouri (not Kansas) men at 
West Point, in Missouri, a little town about ten miles distant, to ' enforce 
the laws.' All pro-slavery, conservative Free State and doughface men, 
and Administi-ation tools, are filled with holy horror," 

The panic which followed this invasion was ridiculous, con- 
sidering its provocation. A general stampede of slaves was 
apprehended; consequently the two counties of Bates and 
Vernon were soon quite cleared of their " chattels," which were 
sent into the interior or shipped to the South for sale. Brown, 
however, made no further "reprisals," but proceeded at once 
to remove his colored colony to Canada. The Governor of 
Missouri offered a reward of three thousand dollars for his ar- 
rest — a sum afterwards increased by the President by an ad- 
ditional reward of two hundred and fifty dollars. Proceeding 
north by way of Lawrence, Brown left that place Jan. 20th, 
en route for Canada through Nebraska, Iowa, Illinois and Mich- 
igan — all of which States he traversed with his body guard. 
Though closely followed by men thirsting for his blood, as well 
as eager for the rewards, his slow march over the States was 
unimpeded — it was like a little triumphal procession. The 
negroes were safely delivered into Victoria's dominions and 
became thriving settlers." 

This act was the finishing blow to Missouri violence. John 



FREE-STATE TRIUMPH. 517 

Brown evidently had calculated results wlien he made the re- 
prisal. Frightened for the future security of their " property," 
the pro-slave borderers became suddenly peaceful, anxious to 
recover the good will of their too-evidently invincible oppo- 
nents, and bearing, with as good a grace as possible, the unpal- 
atable fortune of a Free State on their western border. An 
"Amnesty Act" was adopted, pardoning all " political offenses ;" 
the Governor proclaimed it, and peace dwelt permanently in 
those fair domains. 

We approach the end of this most painful chapter in our 
National history. The election of August, 3d, 1858, was so 
emphatic a protest against minority reign that only the form 
of electing members to that territorial body was necessary to 
secure in it a majority of Free State representatives. This 
being gained, steps at once could be taken for a new State 
Constitutional Convention, to repudiate the past, and to offer 
to Congress such an instrument as it could not, in good faith, 
reject. At the succeeding election, therefore, for assemblymen, 
the Free State men participated and elected members enough 
to override the Missouri intruders. An act was passed (Feb. 
11th, 1859) "to refer the question to the people of a new Con- 
stitutional Convention, the election to be held on the first 
Tuesday in March, 1859. The election was held, and resulted 
in a majority of 3881 in favor of a Convention." This result 
being ascertained, the Governor issued his proclamation for an 
election of delegates. The old party organizations were now 
abandoned, and those of Kepublicans and Democrats substi- 
tuted, and it was on this basis that the canvass for the election 
of delegates proceeded. The Convention was to consist of 
fifty-two delegates. The Democrats proclaimed themselves 
disciples of Mr. Douglas and his Territorial Sovereignty doc- 
trine, and decidedly opposed to making Kansas a Slave State. 
The Leavenworth district — where, through its contractors for 
army supplies, the Government exercised a great influence, and 
which from its population was entitled to ten delegates — elect- 
ed the Democratic ticket, 'not, however, without the aid of 
fraudulent votes. But the Eepublicans, by their predominance 

64 



518 THE KANSAS-NEBRASKA STRUGGLE ' 

in otlier parts of the Territory, succeeded in securing a majori- 
ty in the Convention of thirty-five to seventeen." 

This Convention met at Wyandot July 5th, and continued 
in session twenty-two days. The debates were somewhat ac- 
rimonious, owing to efforts of the "opposition" to absorb as 
much of Nebraslia as lay south of the Platte river, and for in- 
cluding within the lines, on the west, all the Pike's Peak re- 
gion. Being composed exclusively of Democrats, the opposi- 
tion also sought to engraft a provision in the Constitution ex- 
cluding free negroes from the State, and also to prohibit all 
bank issues. But, the Free State (Eepublican) majority was 
too great. The Constitution, adopted by a vote of 84 to 13, 
was a straight-forward, democratic affair, embodying the best 
features of the organic laws of the older States. To it was 
prefixed a bill of rights which included a prohibition of Slavery 
and made competent for testimony before the courts of persons 
of any religious belief 

This instrument was submitted to a vote of the people on 
the first Tuesday in October following. The result was its 
ratification by over four thousand majority. An election for 
members of the Territorial Legislature transpired in November, 
when the Free State men elected, the delegate to Congress and 
a majority of the Legislators. This latter election was regard- 
ed as but a mere form, for it was expected that Congress would 
accept the Wyandot Constitution at an early moment. An 
election for State ofiicers was held Dec. 6th, 1859, which re- 
sulted in the choice of an entire Free State (Eepublican) ticket, 
on which stood Dr. Charles Eobinson for Governor, and M. F. 
Conway for Congress. The Legislature chosen was largely 
Eepublican. 

The Constitution was accepted, by the House of Congress, 
April 11th, 1860, by a vote of 174 to 73 — the Southern mem- 
bers and a few Northern "Democrats" voting against it. But, 
in the pro-slave Senate the acceptance was resisted success- 
fully. Mr. Seward (Feb. 21st, 1860), from the Committee on 
Territories, introduced the House bill for the admission of Kan- 
sas under the Wyandot Constitution. The matter lay over to 
June 5th, when it came up in its order. It was opposed by 



KANSAS IN THE UNIOJT. 519 

the notorious blackguard, "Wigfall, of Te:-^as, on tlie ground 
that he did not want his State to associate with Kansas under 
any circumstances ! Hunter, of Virginia, moved to postpone 
the question, and it was so postponed, yeas 32, nays 27 — a strict 
party vote, only two Northern Democrats being among the 
nays. June 7th, Mr. Wade, of Ohio, again moved to take up 
the bill, but, the motion was lost by the same vote as above ; 
and Congress adjourned leaving Kansas still a Territory. 

Thus, the Senate, which had repealed the time honored 
Compromise Act of 1822 in order to open the Western Terri- 
tories for competition in their settlement, refused to receive 
Kansas with a Constitution prohibiting S\r.very. Putting the 
first and last acts together, and throwing in as incidental testi- 
mony the extraordinary efforts mafle by two Administrations 
to fasten the Lecompton laws upor Kansas, we have irrefragi- 
ble proof of the collusion of Northern men with the South for 
the purpose of Slavery extension. This is now the historic 
verdict, unpalatable as it may be to those who co-operated 
with Mr. Toombs in his crusade against any restrictions to 
Slavery [See letter of Toombs, quoted on page 457, foot note]. 
It was not until the session of 1860-61 when the Senate, by 
the secession of Southern members, permitted Kansas to enter 
the Union. During January, in the midst of extraordinary 
events transpiring in Congress and in the Southern States, the ■ 
friends of Kansas pressed the bill for its' admission to its suc- 
cessful passage. The Territory became a State, by approval 
of the President, January 29th, 1861, and Kansas soon 
was a commonwealth, as remarked for its loyalty to the 
General Government as for its fortitude under the awful vis- 
itations of those who had failed to make her a slave pen, and 
who gravitated toward the " Confederate" cause as naturally as 
sharks toward an infected ship. 

The failure to secure Slave States west of Missouri hastened 
the pro-slave rebellion. The only hope for the South as a 
section, in the Union, was in the United States Senate : controll- 
ing that branch of Congress it might continue to exercise its 
supremacy in National affairs in spite of the immense numeri- 
cal majority of the North. The secession programme doubtr 



520 THE KANSAS-NEBRASKA STRUGGLE. 

less would have been sprung in 1852 had there not been held 
out to Toombs and his confederates the prospect of Southern 
accessions to the west by a co-operation of Northern votes. 
Throughout the entire struggle in Kansas Southern men strain 
ed every nerve to secure the Territory, and they were sustain 
ed, by all the power of two administrations, as if both Presi 
dents iad solemnly agreed to make Kansas a Slave State, 
That they were pledged to the South we entertain not a sha^ 
dow of doubt — the pledge was the price of their acceptance by 
the South, and they were voted for by that section with a full 
understanding that pro-slave interests were to be sustained.* 
How impotent all conspiracy and usurpation were we have 
seen. Truly 

" there 's a Divinity that shapes our ends 

Rough hew them as we will," 

» The following letter from James M. Mason, of Va. , to the then Secretary of 
War, Jefferson Davis, explains itself: 

" Selma, near Winchester, Va. , Sept. 30, 1856. 

" My Dear Sra : I have a letter from Wise, of the 27th, full of spirit. He says 
the Government* of North Carolina, South Carolina and Louisiana, have already 
agreed to rendezvous at Ealeigh, and others will — this in your most private ear. 
He says, further, that he had ofiScially requested you to exchange with Virginia^ 
on fair terms of difference, percussion for flint muskets. I don't know the usage 
or power of the Department in such cases, but if it can be done, even by liberal 
construction, I hope you will accede. Was there not an appropriation at the last 
session for converting flint into percussion arms ? If so, would it not furnish good 
reason for extending such facilities to the States ? Virginia probably has more 
arms than the other Southern States, and would divide, in case of need. In a letter 
yesterday to a Committee in South Carolina, I gave it as my judgment, in the event 
of Fremont's election, the South should not pause, but proceed at once to ' imme- 
diate, absolute and eternal separation.' So I am a candidate for the first halter 

" Wise says his accounts from Philadelphia are cheering for Old Buck in Penn- 
sylvania. I hope they be not delusive. Vale et Salute, 

(Signed) " J. M. MASON. 

" Coloael Davis." 



THE CONSPIRACY OF JOM BROWN. 



The attempt of John Brown to excite a servile insurrection 
in Virginia was a revival of Nat Turner's scheme of a Negra 
independency in the South. It was not, as generally reported 
at the time of his arrest, trial and execution, a mere plan to 
run off slaves to Canada. The old man was, as we shall show, 
no " chattel thief" of this sort. His plans rather embraced a 
heavy accession from Canada of able bodied and resolute ne- 
groes to form the mountain army of his contemplated perma- 
nent occupation. There was a wildness in the conception 
which savored of insanity ; but, the plan was not conceived in 
a moment of frenzy — it was the matured enterprise of several 
years of thought and of much conference with certain emi- 
nent abolitionists. If it failed, and ended in the execution of 
all who survived the first conflict, it was, 1st, because, as in 
Nat Turner's case, the slaves did not rally to his call, and 2d, 
because he had underestimated the odds against him. Had 
the first stroke been successful he might have maintained 
hold upon Virginia soil. News of this success would have 
impelled great numbers of slaves and free negroes to his stand- 
ard ; accessions would have passed in from the North both of 
whites and free negroes, and thus his dream would have been 
realized of a liberating army too strong to be driven out yet 
too dangerous to be permitted to remain. Then would have 
followed the conflict which the old man counted on as neces- 
sary to spread the spirit of revolt among the plantations, and 
his beacon fires would have been lit along the Alleghanies from 
the Potomac to the Greorgian Hills as rallying points for the 



522 THE CONSPIEACY OF JOHN BROWN. 

swarms of black humanity whicli must answer to his call. 
The first stroke was a disaster with which fell a scheme that 
Federal arms alone could have suppressed. 

As early as the year 1839 John Brown had determined upon 
this slave insurrection, as we are expressly informed by his 
accredited biographer, Eedpath, who states : 

" It was in 1839 that he conceived the idea of becoming a Liberator 
of the Southern slaves. He had seen, during the twenty-five years that 
had elapsed since he became an abolitionist, every right of human na- 
ture, and of the Northern States, ruthlessly trodden under the feet of the 
tyrannical slave power. He saw it blighting and blasting the manhood 
of the nation ; and he listened to ' the voice of the poor that cried.' He 
heard Lafayette loudly praised, but he saw no helper of the bondman. 
He saw the peoj)le building the sepulchres of the fathers of '76, but 
lynching and murdering the prophets that were sent unto them. He 
believed that : 

' Who would be free, themselves must strike the blow.' 
But the slaves, scattered, closely watched, prevented from assembling 
to conspire, without arms, apparently overpowered, at the mercy of 
every traitor, knowing the white man only as their foe, seeing every 
where and always, that (as the Haytian proverb pithily expresses it,) 
' Zie Mane, ioidlle negues'' — the eyes of the whites burn up the negroes — 
in order to arise and strike a blow for liberty, needed a positive sign 
that they had friends among the dominant race, who sympathized with 
them, believed in their right to freedom, and were ready to aid them in 
their attempt to obtain it, John Brown determined to let them know 
that they had friends, and prepcired himself to lead them to libertj'. 
From the moment that he formed this resolution, he engaged in no 
commercial speculations, which he could not, without loss to his friends 
and family, wind up in fourteen days. He waited patiently, ' Learn 
TO "Wait : I have waited twenty years,' he often said to the young men 
of principle and talent, who loved and flocked around him when in 
Kansas," 

He only went to Kansas in 1855, at the call of his sons, for 
their defense, and to " win the confidence" of those on whose 
personal co-operation he must depend for primary success in 
his great undertaking, [See page 490, foot note,] He was 
then residing in ISTorth Elba, in New York, on a sheep farm — 
having failed in business as a wool speculator, a few years pre- 
viously. Though poor in worldly goods, yet he possessed the 
will of a HercuJes, the faith of an Aaron. All accounts agree 
in ascribing to him a character remarkable for moral purity 



JOHN beown's chaeacter. 523 

and for the invincible tenacity of his will. He had courage, 
patience, self denial and power of command to an almost un- 
limited degree. He had age to render him venerable yet his 
frame was capable of great endurance. All were mastered by 
the deep devotion to an idea, or rather to a principle — that of 
war against human slavery. This principle was the compass 
of his life ; it rankled in his soul like a subterranean fire ; it 
impregnated his religion, his politics, his relations to man ; it 
was his Golden Rule and his sword of flame. Men called him 
a monomaniac ; but his mania was identical with that which 
sways the actions of all intense natures. Luther, Melancthon, 
Peter the Hermit, Savonarolla, Joan d'Arc, Cromwell, were 
monomaniacs ; but, unlike these. Brown was not a man of 
powerful intellectual perceptions; he was an irreconcilable 
zealot, possessed neither of a statesman's powers nor of a poli- 
tician's discretion. He occupies a place in history beside the 
religious enthusiast, Nat Turner, rather than an association 
with those named above. His admirers have exalted him to 
the Yalhalla of the Great ; a few New England idealists have 
classed him with that rare race of individuals of whom one oc- 
casionally appears to impersonate the revolutionary idea 
which marks the progress of human events toward perfect 
order ; lasting honor has crowned his career by embalming 
his memory in the rude lyric which moves men and masses 
like an inspiration : * 

John Brown's body lies mouldering in the grave, 
John Brown's body lies mouldering in the grave, 
John Brown's body lies mouldering in the grave. 

But his soul is marching on. 
' Glory, glory hallelujah, 
Glory, glory hallelujah, 
Glory, glory hallelujah. 

His soul is marching on. 

» The origin of this song is a mystery. Like those lyrics which have become 
immortal from their interpretation of national emotion, it seems to have taken 
form insensibly, as the utterance of feeling otherwise unutterable. The sublime 
cadences of that wild song, chaunted by whole divisions, were the inspiration of 
the " Army of the Union" when it went into battle. No battle anthem ever so 
stirred men up to deeds of greatness. The leaders of the Union army acknowledge 
its superhuman power for inspiriting the ranks. One of the most eminent of De- 
partment commanders has said that that song " made heroes of all his men." 



524 THE CONSPIRACY OF JOHN BROWN. 

John Brown's knapsack is strapped upon his back, 
John Brown's knapsack is strapped upon his back, 
John Brown's knapsack is strapped upon his back. 

And his soul is marching on 
Glory, glory hallelujah, 
Glory, glory hallelujah. 
Glory, glory hallelujah. 

His soul is marching on. 
He 's gone to be a soldier in the army of the Lord, 
He 's gone to be a soldier in the army of the Lord, 
He 's gone to be a soldier in the army of the Lord, 

And his soul is marching on. 
Glory, glory hallelujah. 
Glory, glory hallelujah, 
Glory, glory hallelujah, 

His soul is marching on. 

But, considering his entire character and career, we at- 
tribute his posthumous fame less to any true greatness of his 
nature than to the fact that his " martyrdom" was rapidly fol- 
lowed by, if it did not, indeed, hasten, the shot on Sumter's 
walls. In some indefinable manner the Southern Eebellion 
came to be regarded as a fulfilment of his prophecies. He, 
hence, became a Jeremiah, who, though dead in the body, still 
lived in the hearts of the people : " his soul is marching on," 
was but the refrain of the grand emotion swelling and surging 
in the popular breast. 

Brown's Kansas experiences doubtless served to confirm his 
purposes in regard to a slave insurrection. He there received 
new impressions regarding the baleful effects of the institution 
upon whites as well as blacks. The men who represented 
' Southern interests' and clamored lustily for ^ slavery were 
vicious and dissolute to a degree almost incomprehensible to a 
Northern mind. His impressions were much intensified by 
seeing and knoiving these men, and he returned from Kansas 
to the East late in the Fall of I806 to impart to the ' friends 
of freedom' what he had learned, as well as to perfect arrange- 
ments for the deliverance of the Territory from the grasp of 
the ' enemies of man.' During the Winter following he visited 
many places and addressed large audiences convened to hear 
the story of his experiences. Everywhere he made a profound 



WAS HE DEMENTED? 526 

impression, althougli a large class conceived him a dangerous, 
because an "incendiary", character. Said a leading free soil 
paper in Cleveland, Ohio, on the occasion of his visit to that 
place : 

" He M'as so demented as to suppose he could raise a regiment of men 
in Ohio to march into Missouri to make reprisals against the slave 
forces, and even asked a friend if the power of the State could not 
be enlisted in that matter. He was then told by many that he was 
a madman, and the poor man left, sorrowing that there was no sym- 
pathy here for the oppressed." 

And his own half-brother, a well-to-do farmer and a person 
of intelligence, regarded him as demented. He said — writing 
after the fatal termination of the Harper's Ferry emcufe: 

" After his return to Kansas he called on me, and I urged him to go 
home to his family and attend to his private affairs ; that [ feared his 
course would prove his destruction and that of his boys. This was 
about two years ago. He replied that he was sorry that I did not 
sympathize with him ; that he knew he was in the line of his duty, 
and he must pursue it, though it should destroy him and his family. 
He stated to me that he was satisfied that he was a chosen instrument 
in the hands of God to war against slavery. From his manner and from 
his conversation at this time, I had no doubt he had become insane 
upon the subject of slavery, and gave him to understand this was my 
opinion of him." 

But, he was not demented. He was, on the contrary, very 
clear headed. He saw things with a vision different from those 
around him ; and he was too self-denying, too persistent, to let 
any consideration move him from his conceived path of duty. 
Such men are rare in these days of mammon worship ; yet, are 
numerous enough to vitalize the great crust of society and 
keep it from settling down into the dull, heavy, mass which 
presages social dyspepsia. He was neither insane nor imprac- 
tical ; rather he was eminently rational and methodical. His 
conduct proves nothing against his sanity save that he loathed 
slavery with a sublime sense of dislike ; and the future, what- 
ever may be the legal verdict upon his career, will not cease 
to admire the soul which could press on to its conceived mis- 
sion with such patient reliance upon the idea that moved him.' 

* The testimony of his most liateful enemy, C. L. Vallandigham, of Ohio, is wor- 
thy of citation. After the capture of Brown at Harper's Ferry, Mr. V. proceeded 
Id haste to the spot to gain from him a knowledge of his accomplices, with the ul« 



526 THE CONSPIRACY OF JOHN BROWN. "^ 

When in Boston, during January, 1857, he said: "I believe 
in the Golden Eule and the Declaration of Independence. I 
think they both mean the same thing ; and it is better that a 
whole generation should pass off the face of the earth — men, 
women and children — by a violent death, than that one jot of 
either should fail in this country." 

This was his idea, and he pursued it to the gallows. "Was 
he insane for entertaining it? 

In this visit to the East it is known that Brown conferred 
with leading abolitionists regarding his proposed descent on 
Virginia and received so much encouragement as to ai-range, 
somewhat definitively, for his long-contemplated crusade. He 
failed, however, to obtain funds, and returned to Kansas in the 
Summer of 1857 to form the nucleus of his liberating host. 
He there met by agreement Colonel Hugh Forbes, an English 
adventurer who had participated in the Hungarian and Italian 
revolutions, and had a good knowledge of Garabaldi's system 
of guerilla warfare. Brown sought to call around him those 
young men whom he already had tried and found ' true as steel,' 
though it would seem that some of the men were not informed 
as to the ultimate object of their organization. Want of means 
restricted movements so much that Brown retired to the "abo- 
lition" village of Tabor, in Iowa, where he remained from Au- 
gust to November, when Colonel Forbes abandoned the con- 
spiracy for reasons variously stated. He afterwards became 
an informer against Biown, and compelled the temporary sus- 
pension of the plot in 1858. 

In the Spring of 1858 the company, composed of nine, start- 
led from Tabor, for the East, taking with them considerable 

timate design of their arrest and extradition to Virginia for trial. He closely and 
cruelly pressed the old man, as he lay wounded on the floor of the guard house, 
but learned not a word to use as evidence against his political antagonists whom 
he hoped to see in Virginia dungeons. After his inquisition he wrote : 

" It is in vain to underrate either the man or the conspiracy. Captain John 
Brown is as brave and resolute a man as ever headed an insurrection, and in a good 
cause, and with a sufficient force, would have been a consummate partisan com- 
mander. He has coolne<»f», daring persistency, the stoic faith and patience, and a 
firnuK-ss of will and purpose unconquerable. He is the farthest possible remove 
from the ordinary ruffian, fanatic or madman. Certainly it was one of the beat 
plamied and best exeouied conspiracies that ever failed." 



THE CHATHAM CONVENTION. 627 

stores, arms and ammunition, wliicli Brown and his friends 
had gathered. The arms consisted of about two hundred 
Sharpe's rifles and the same number of navy revolvers. These 
were transported to Ashtabula county, Ohio, thence to be 
borne, at the proper moment, to the rendezvous near Harper's 
Ferry. 

From Ohio Brown passed over into Canada West, where 
a preconcerted convention was held May 8th, 1858. This con- 
vocation was an important feature in the conspiracy. Its gen-- 
eral nature and action were thus referred to by Cook, oae of 
the Conspirators afterwards caught and hanged by the Virgi- 
nians. In his confession he stated : 

" The place of naeeting was in one of the negro churches in Chatham. 
The convention, I think, was called to order by J. H. Kagi. Its object 
was then stated, which was to complete a thorough organization and the 
formation of a Constitution. The first business was to elect a President 
and Secretary. Elder Monroe, a colored minister, was elected President, 
and J. H. Kagi, Secretary. The next business was to form a Constitu- 
tion. Captain Brown had already drawn up one, which, on motion, was 
read by the Secretary. On motion it was ordered that each article of 
the Constitution be taken up, and separately amended and passed, 
which was done. On motion, the Constitution was then adopted as a 
whole. The next business was to nominate a Commander-in-Chief, 
Secretary of War, and Secretary of State. Captain John Brown was 
unanimously elected Commander-in-Chief, J. H. Kagi, Secretary of War, 
and Richard Realf, Secretary of State. Elder Monroe was to act as 
President until another was chosen. A. M. Chapman, I think, was to 
act as Vice President. Dr. M. K. Delaney was one of the Corresponding 
Secretaries of the Organization. There were some others from the Unit- 
ed States, whose names I do not now remember. Most of the delegates 
to the Convention were from Canada. After the Constitution was 
adopted, the members took their oath to support it. It was then signed 
by all present. During the interval between the call for the Convention 
and its assembling, regular meetings were held at Barbour's Hotel, 
where we were stopping, by those who were known to be true to the 
cause, at which meetings plans were laid and discussed. There were no 
white men at the Convention, save the members of our company. Men 
and money had both been promised from Chatham and other parts of 
Canada. When the Convention broke up, news was received that Col. 
H. Forbes, who had joined in the movement, had given information to 
the Government. This, of course delayed the time of attack. A day or 
two afterwards most of our party took the boat to Cleveland— J. BL 



528 THE CONSPIRACY OF JOHN BROWN. 

Kagi, Richard Realf, William H. Leemaii, Richard Robertson and Cap- 
tain Brown remaining. Captain Brown, however, started in a day or 
two for the East. Kagi, I think, went to some other town in Canada 
to set up the type and to get the Constitution jsrinted, which he com- 
pleted before he returned to Cleveland. We remained in Cleveland 
for some weeks, at which place, for the time being, the company dis- 
banded." 

Among the papers of Brown found at Harper's Ferry were 
minutes of the proceedings of this Convention, a list of its 
members, and copies of the "Constitution" as adopted. [See 
Appendix for so much of this instrument as the Virginia au- 
thorities permitted to be published.] But, there is yet much 
mystery concerning the affair. The Constitution itself was a 
queer document, judged by the light thus far shed upon it. It 
is probable, however, the conspiracy was but half unfolded — 
that the movement which miscarried at its first stroke, was one 
planned for ultimate results of an extended political as well as 
social nature. If further developements shall be made — as is 
not likely — what now in the Constitution and in Brown's pro- 
ceedings appear singular will assume at least an air of con- 
sistency. 

After the Chatham gathering it was not Brown's design to 
repair to Kansas, but, at once, to direct his steps to Harper's 
Ferry. The discovery of Forbes' defection and revelations 
to the President of the United States regarding the perfected 
plans of the "Liberators," compelled a change in their pro- 
gramma. Aside from this defection, when the moment lor 
action came Brown found that numerous friends, in the East 
and in Ohio, failed to come forward with their promised means. 
He went East, from Cleveland, during May, to confer with 
some of these friends, and then hastened to Kansas, having 
first dispatched Cook to Harper's Ferry to reconnoitre, to indi- 
cate depots for arms, and to report — all of which he did. The 
horrible massacre of ten Free State men on the Marais-des- 
Cygnes creek, in May, 1858, aroused all the lion in Brown's 
soul, and. he again repaired to Kansas to enlist in its defense. 
His proceedings there are detailed in the preceding article. He 
literally "carried the war into Africa," and struck the blow 
which ended all further Missouri raids over the border. The 



brown's second visit to the east. 529 

forcible abstraction by "him, of eleven slaves, from Missouri 
soil — the march to Detroit, Michigan, with liis prize, defying 
not only all pursuers but even tlie Fugitive Slave law and the 
United States authority, illustrates tbe resolution and the sym- 
pathies of the man. He safely delivered the slaves at Windsor. 
The moment then seemed to have arrived for the initiation 
of his schemes. He therefore earnestly set about gathering 
material resour(?es for his anti-slave crusade. From March to 
midsummer he pressed his arrangements so secretly and so 
successfully as to excite not a ripple of alarm among the op- 
ponents of his enterprise, who, at that time, comprised nine- 
teen-twentieths of the people. Yet, he did not proceed in dis- 
guise. Late in March he appeared, in company with his intel- 
ligent and devoted confederate, Kagi, at Cleveland, Ohio, and 
made a speech to the multitude convened to express sympathy 
with several leading citizens of Oberlin, then in prison by 
United States processes for assisting in the escape of runaway 
slaves. His words were those of scorn of the institution which 
made chattels of human beings. He related the particulars of 
his late expedition of liberation, and remarked that, though 
very poor, he still was worth three thousand two hundred and 
fifty dollars — that being the price fixed upon his head by the 
Governor of Missouri and the President of the United States. 
He was received with a " storm of applause." From Cleveland 
he proceeded first to Astabula county, Ohio, where he found 
friends and advisers in several well known men, and where his 
temporary depot of arms then was. Passing on to the East, 
he delivered a speech at Eochester, IST. Y., and spent a brief 
period with his friend Gerritt Smith, ut Peterboro, from whom 
he doubtless, received such final aid as enabled him to 
hasten the consummation of his plans. He visited Boston and 
New York city. At Collins ville. Conn., he ordered to be com- 
pleted the one thousand pikes, which, though contracted for in 
March, 1857, he had not been able to pay for — hence they were 
not finished. After a somewhat extended tour to the East, 
and a brief visit to his family at North Elba, New York, he 
returned to Northern Ohio — thence he made his way to Cham- 
bersburg, Penn., where he was joined by two of his sons and 



530 THE CONSPIRACY OF JOHN BEOWN. 

Captain Anderson. Witli these he proceeded to Hagerstown, 
Md. — there assuming the name of Smith. He was carried to 
Harper's Ferry in a public hack, and represented to inquirers 
that, tired of farming in Western New York, he was seeking 
for a sheep farm in that vicinity. Said the man who drove the 
adventurers over to the Ferry : 

" After looking around Harper's Ferry a few days, and prowling 
througli the mountains in search of minerals, as they said, they came 
across a large farm with three unoccupied houses — the owner, Dr 
Booth Kennedy, having died in the Spring. These houses they rented 
from the family till next March, and paid the rent iu advance, and also 
purchased a lot of hogs from the family for cash, and agreed to take 
care of the stock until a sale could be had ; and they did attend most 
faithfully to them, and have it all in first rate order ; were gentlemen, and 
Jcind to every hody. After living there a few weeks, others joined them, 
until as many as twelve were in these three houses, and every few days 
a stranger would ajjpear and disappear again without creating the least 
surprise." 

This Kennedy farm was located about five miles from the 
Ferry, on the Maryland side, in a well settled but somewhat 
wild region. It was an admirably chosen rendezvous, accessi- 
ble yet not too exposed. The men there quietly gathered, but 
kept from sight, spending much time in wandering singly, over 
wide distances of the mountainous regions around the Ferry, 
to become well acquainted with its wild and intricate features. 
Their goods, arms, ammunition and stores, were carted, with- 
out notice, from Chambersburg to the farm, which soon became 
quite an arsenal. 

Here the conspirators remained undisturbed until the hour 
of action. Says Brown's biographer: " It was the original in- 
tention of Captain Brown to sieze the arsenal at Harper's Ferry 
on the night of the 24th of October, and to take the arms there 
deposited to the neighboring mountains, with a number of the 
wealthier citizens of the vicinity, as hostages, until they should 
redeem'' themselves by liberating an equal number of their 
slaves. When at Baltimore, for satisfactory reasons, he deter- 
mined to strike the blow that was to shake the slave systeni to 
its foundations, on the night of the 17th. One of the men who 
fought at Harper's Ferry gave me as the chief reason for the 
precipitate movement, that they suspected there was a J a- 



THE "work" begun. 531 

das in their company. That the reasons were just and impor- 
tant, the prudence that John Brown had always hitherto man- 
ifested satisfactorily proves. But this decision, however 
necessary, was unfortunate ; for the men from Canada, Kansas, 
New England and the neighboring Free States, who had been 
told to be prepared for the event on the 24th of October, and 
were ready to do their duty at Harper's Ferry at that time, 
were unable to join their Captain at this earlier period. 

" Many, who started to join the Liberators, halted half way ; 
for the blow had already been struck, and their Captain made 
a captive. Had there been no precipitation, the mountains of 
Virginia, to-day, would have been peopled with free blacks, 
properly ofl&cered and ready for field action. 

" The negroes, also, in the neighboring counties, who had 
promised to be ready on the 24th of October, were confused 
by the precipitate attack ; and, before they could act in concert 
— which they can only do by secret nocturnal meetings — were 
watched, overpowered, and deprived of every chance to join 
their heroic Liberators. 

" Having sent off the women who lived at their cabins — 
Cook's wife and others — the neighbors began to talk about 'the 
singularity of the proceeding ; and it became necessary, on thafe 
account, also, to precipitate an attack on Harper's Ferry." 

On the evening of the 17th, Brown convened his friends and 
gave them his general as well as specific instructions — among 
which was to take no life not actually necessary to their own 
self-preservation— an injunction followed to the letter. 

At night fall, October 17th, 1859, the Conspirators passed 
from the farm to the Ferry. The number detailed to the town 
was twenty-two, viz.: seventeen whites, and five blacks. Seve- 
ral squads were dispatched to positions above and below the 
town for the purpose of cutting away the telegraph wires and 
for tearing up the railway track — thus to sever all communi- 
cation with the Ferry and to give the Conspirators time to con- 
summate their work. The first steps were to sieze the town 
and some of its citizens as hostages for the safety of any " Lib- 
erator" who might be captured ; to capture the Government 
arsenal with its rich stores of cannon, muskets and munitions, 



532 THE CON-SPIRACY OF JOHN BROWN. 

thus to obtain the necessary equipments for the powerful 
force which it was conceived would soon be at the leader's 
disposal, composed of whites and negroes on their way from 
the North, and ot slaves for whose liberation the movement 
was made ; then, all having been accomplished, the armed host 
was to retire to the fastnesses of the mountains before the mi- 
litia which would, it was supposed, gather for an attack. The 
general plan, as divulged by Cook, Brown and Kagi,' compris- 
ed a permanent occupation of the Virginia mountains ; no slaves 
were to be run off to Canada, except such as preferred to go ; 
communications with the North, through Pennsylvania, were 
to be preserved ; the standard of revolt was to be borne along 
the mountains to the South, but no war was to be made other 
than one of strict defense, and such as might be necessary to 
aid the negroes in making their way from the plantations to 
the mountains. This was the general scheme conceived by the 
daring leader. That it could have succeeded is, indeed, most 
questionable ; for, had Brown been able to retire, as arranged, 
to the mountains, and had he proven too strong for the militia, 
the Federal Grovernment itself must have assumed the offen- 
sive. It doubtless was expected by the friends of the move- 
ment that, in event of the General Government calling out its 
forces, a large accession of Northern men, to Brown's numbers 
would at once take place and thus render him too formidable 
for suppression. However, nothing is now in existence to prove 
that it was his design actually to resist the Federal Govern- 
ment in the field, though we can well conceive that the perma- 
nent occupation arranged for, and the " provisional government" 
ordained by the Chatham Convention, meant nothing if 
not war against all comers. Kagi, in his revelation, it is true, 
put a less revolutionary face on the movement. Thus, the au- 
thority who reports his evidence, says : 

" As fast as possible other bands besides the original ones were to be 
formed, and a continuous chain of posts established in the mountains. 

* Kagi was killed early in the first affray. Before leaving Kansas, in 1858, he 
divulged the programme of deliverance and of operations in Virginia. This pro- 
gramme was followed out so closely as to make it appear that Kagi's revelation 
embodied the main features of Brown's stupendous plans. 



OCCUPATION OF THE TOWN. 533 

They were to be supported by provisions taken from the farms of the 
oppressors. They expected to be speedily and constantly reenforced ; 
first, by the arrival of those men, who, in Canada, were anxiously look- 
ing arid praying for the time of deliverance, and then by the slaves them- 
selves. The intention was to hold the egress to the Free States as long 
as possible, in order to retreat when that was advisable. Kagi, howev- 
er, expected to retreat southward, not in the contrary direction. The 
slaves were to be armed with pikes, scythes, muskets, shot guns and 
other simple instruments of defense ; the officers, white or black, and 
such of the men as were skilled and trustworthy, to have the use of the 
Sharpe's rifles and revolvers. They anticipated procuring provisions 
enough for subsistence by forage, as also arms, horses and ammunition. 
Kagi said one of the reasons that induced him to go into the enterprise 
was a full conviction that, at no very distant day, forcible efforts for 
freedom would break out among the slaves, and that slavery might be 
more speedily abolished by such efforts than by any other means. He 
knew by observation in the South, that in no point was the system more 
vulnerable than in its fear of a slave rising. Believing that such a blow 
would soon be struck, he wanted to organize it so as to make it more 
effectual, and also, by directing and controlling the negroes, to prevent 
some of the atrocities that would necessarily arise from the sudden up- 
heaval of such a mass as the Southern slaves. The Constitution adopt- 
ed at Chatham was intended as the framework of organization among 
the emancipationists, to enable the leaders to effect a more complete 
control of their forces. Ignorant men, in ftict all men, were more easily 
managed by the forms of law and organization than without them. This 
was one of the jjurposes to be served by the Provisional Government. 
Another was to alarm tlie Oligarchy by the discipline and the show of 
organization. In their terror they would imagine the whole North was 
upon them pell-mell, as well as all their slaves. Kagi said John Brown 
anticipated that by a system of forbearance to non-slaveholders many 
of them might be induced to join them." 

The company detailed to the town performed its work qui- 
etly. All street lights were first extinguished and the 
armory secured — its watchmen being taken prisoners and lock- 
ed up in the guard house. A watchman on the railway 
bridge over the Potomac also was seized. A second watchman 
coming on at midnight was ordered to surrender, but ran and 
gave the first alarm at the hotel, though nothing followed. A 
passenger train from the West, bound to Baltimore and Wash- 
ington, reached the bridge after midnight to find it in posses- 
sion of an armed guard. The train was delayed several hours, 
66 



534: THE CONSPIRACY OF JOHN BROWN. 

greatly to the alarm of its passengers, but Brown's liabitual 
kindness prevailed over his sense of prudence, it would ap- 
pear, for he finally permitted it to pass. It then flew on its 
way to the east to spread the alarm, and, early on the 18th, 
the country was electrified with most startling announce- 
ments of the "insurrection." Newspaper " extras" issued in 
the cities. East, west, north and south the excitement which 
succeeded was boundless. The most eager curiosity prevailed 
for more news, and more news soon was forthcoming ; each 
hour added to the store of reports " from the scene of conflict." 
Great numbers of adventurers and newspaper reporters took 
early trains to reach the centre of interest. 
/' The first steps taken by Brown were followed by the arrest 
of every citizen who appeared on the street. By day -break 
about fifty had thus been borne to the guard house. As the 
morning progressed, so quietly had affairs been managed, that 
numbers of workmen turned out for their day's labor, uncon- 
scious, until taken prisoners, that the town was under martial 
occupancy. The detail of squads for guarding important 
points was necessarily small. Thus, Brown, his Iwo sons, Aaron 
D. Stevens and two blacks held the armoiy ; John Kagi, with 
Wm. H. Leeman, Stewart Taylor, Lewis Leary, Anderson and 
Copeland (the two latter colored men) held the rifle works and 
patrolled the lower town ; John E. Cook, with Owen Brown, 
C. P. Tidd, R J. Merriam and Barclay Coppoc remained at 
the Kennedy farm cabins and school house to care for the pro 
perty there and to act as a reserve ; a few men stood on guard 
at the bridge and street corners. What an army of invasion ! 

During the forenoon shots were fired by citizens who began 
to pluck up resolution. A man named Barclay who fired upon 
the guard was killed mstantly. About half a dozen Virgini- 
ans, gathered in a building commanding the armory grounds, 
succeeded in killing one of Brown's men and in mortally 
wounding his son Watson. This random firing continued un- 
til after mid-day. Shortly after noon a detachment of militia 
from Charlestown, Va., arrived, one hundred strong. This was 
the beginning of the end. These troops, in conjunction with 
citizens, soon obtained possession of the Shenandoah bridge, 



THE BEGINNING OF THE END. 635 

the rifle works and other available points. Brown, seeing his 
position untenable, retired to the armory engine bouse. Kagi 
and his men, pressed into the river, swam to rocks in its cen- 
tre, which four of them reached. They were there met by the 
lire of one hundred muskets. Kagi literally was riddled with 
balls. His body floated down stream, soon to be accompanied 
by that of Anderson. Leary was mortally wounded and 
Copeland taken prisoner. Leeman's brains were blown out by 
a German militiaman. Having been sent to confer with Brown, 
he was wounded and was pursued into the water there to be 
shot down. The engine house soon was under siege. One by 
one the "Liberators" began to fall. Newby, a negro, and Jim, 
Colonel Washington's coachman, fell early in the afternoon. 
Also a free negro. All of these negroes fought intrepidly. 
Two Virginians were killed in the first assault on the engine 
house, viz.: Captain Turner and Mr. Beckman, Mayor of the 
town. In revenge, William Thompson, one of Brown's men, 
held as a prisoner, was taken out on the bridge and shot, with 
many accompaniments of atrocity. A townsman held as a 
hostage prevailed on Brown to let Stevens and himself pass 
out, under a flag of truce, to try and arrange matters. Brown 
consented, when Stevens and the citizen passed out. The flag 
was violated ; Stevens was shot, and the citizen failed to return 
to Brown's quarters. Night at length came to find the lion- 
hearted old warrior closely besieged by a force of over one 
thousand well arm^ed and infuriated men. His case was hope- 
less. Why he did not escape to the mountains before he be- 
came so helplessly hemmed in is not known. Should he hold 
out until morning then the force against him would be two 
thousand men, for the President of the United States, the Gov- 
ernor of Virginia and the City of Baltimore all had dispatched 
troops to the spot. Said Eedpath : "The result of the day's 
fight to the Liberators looked extremely gloomy. In the rivers 
floated the corpses of Kagi, Leeman, Stewart Taylor and Wm. 
Thompson. Imprisoned, and near to death, lay Lewis Leary 
and Stevens, Copeland was a captive. On the street lay the 
dead bodies of Hazlitt and Newby. In the engine house were 
the remains of Oliver Brown and Dauphin Thompson ; while 



536 THE CONSPIRACY OF JOHN BROWN, 

Watson, the Captain's son, lay without hope of recovery. The 
only unwounded survivors of the Liberators in the engine 
house were Captain Brown, Jerry Anderson, Edwin Coppoc, 
and Shields Green, the negro. Eight Virginia hostages, and a 
small number of armed negroes were with them." 

The morning of Tuesday, October 19th, brought, as was ex- 
pected, such an array as would have appalled any other heart 
than that of John Brown. There was no tremor in his nerves. 
He calmly awaited the last shock, determined, with his three 
unbounded men, to receive the charge of the host without but 
not to surrender, /' A company of United States troops, having 
arrived during the night, with two pieces of artillery, took po- 
sition before the engine house, but forbore to open on it as 
within were Colonel Washington and seven other Virginians, 
held as hostages. A parley was called, therefore, under a flag 
of truce. Brown was pressed earnestly to surrender. He 
firmly refused except upon terms equivalent to his escape, viz.: 
to be permitted to march out with his men and arms, taking 
his prisoners with him ; to proceed to the second toll gate be 
yond the bridge, where he would free the prisoners ; there the 
troops might enter upon the pursuit and catch the "Liberators" 
if they could. 

The direct assault followed. A heavy ladder used as a bat- 
tering ram laid open the doors and the United States troops 
entered, ; One only of the assailants was seriously wounded, 
although four rifles were fired into the crowd. One of Brown's 
men was killed, and he himself shockingly cut by sabre strokes 
on his head after he had ceased resistance, and, after he was 
down, was twice bayonetted. /'Only Coppoc and Green escaped) 
' unhurt to be reserved for the gallows. I Brown was borne to 
the guard house, where he found the wounded Stevens. Wat- 
son Brown was, a few hours later, removed, in a dying condi- 
tion, to the same place. In front of the engine house lay the 
other son's dead body. No beds were provided for the wound- 
ed men ; they were treated with great severity. / Had it not 
been for the presence of Colonel Eobert E. Lee, of the U. S. 
army, it is probable the militia would have hung on the spot 
every survivor. Cook and his party, informed of Brown's fute, 



WISE S OPINION OF BEOWN. 537 

fled to the mountains, to become a seven days' terror, and to 
enlist, in his pursuit, half the able bodied inhabitants of the 
surrounding country, as well as several bodies of militia and 
the United States' marines. 

It is needless here to detail the incidents which followed this 
capture. That they were numerous and exciting is true, but 
they belong rather to local than to general history. Governor 
Wise and U. S. Senator Mason, both of Virginia, hastened to 
the Ferry, where they held an interview with Brown and Ste- 
vens in the guard house.' They learned nothing aside from 
what Brown confessed to be his general design to liberate slaves. 
The premises at Kennedy's farm were searched, and, in a car- 
pet bag iilled with papers, were found copies of the Chathan 
Constitution, which Brown acknowledged to be his own con- 
ception. He produced on his visitors, by his fearless but kind 
demeanor, an impression singularly at variance with the hate 
of the infuriated crowd who gathered to " get a sight of the 
monster." Said the Governor, after his return to Richmond : 

" They are themselves mistaken who take him to be a madman. He 
is a bundle of the best nerves I ever saw, cut and thrust, and bleeding 
and in bonds. He is a man of clear head, of courage, fortitude and 
simple ingenuousness. He is cool collected and indomitable, and it 
is but just to him to say, that he was humane to his prisoners, as 
stated to me by Colonel Washington and Mr. Mills, and he inspired 
me with great trust in his integrity as a man of truth. He is a fa- 
natic, vain and garrulous, but firm, and truthful and intelligent. Hia 
men, too, who survive, except the free negroes with him, are like him. 
He professes to be a Christian, in communion with the Congregational 
Church of the North, and openly preaches his purpose of universal 
emancipation : and the negroes themselves were to be the agents, by 
means of arms, led on by white commanders." 

There were found stored in the buildings at the farm, and 
in the log school house near by, a considerable quantity of 
arms, munitions, &;c. Also two fine horses, wagon and other 
"personal property. All was "confiscated." 
'' After lying in the guard house until Wednesday affcernooil,'^ 
Oct. 20th, the surviving Conspirators were borne to Charles- 

* Valla ndigham, the Ohio Congressman, already referred to, was present at tliia 
interview. He was anxious to implicate others, but Browu and Stevens were too 
discreet to give the politiciaa auy comfort. 



538 THE CONSPIRACY OF JOHN BROWN. 

town jail, accompanied by Governor Wise and a strong escort 
of U. S. marines. ; Watson Brown had died in the guard house 
Wednesday morning. His body was given over to the doctors 
for dissection.' The remaining bodies were gathered and 
buried together in a pit. A preliminary ' court' composed of 
eight justices of the peace, convened on the 25th of October. 
This court was but a form to bind the prisoners over to the 
Circuit Court. Brown protested against it. His fearless speech 
in the court room has often been cited. He said : 

" If a fair trial is to be allowed us, there are mitigating circumstances, 
that I would urge in our favor. But if we are to be forced with a mere 
form — a trial for execution— you might spare yourselves that trouble. 
I am ready for my fate. I do not ask a trial. I beg for no mockery of 
a trial — no insult — nothing but that which conscience gives or coward- 
ice would drive you to practise. 

" I ask again to be excused from the mockery of a trial. I do not know 
•what the special design of this examination is. I do not know what is 
to be the benefit of it to the Commonwealth. I have now little further 
to ask, other than that I may not be foolishly insulted, only as cowardly 
barbarians insult those Who fall into their power." 

The examination, however, proceeded. The evidence of 
course was such as to commit all for final trial, before the high- 
er tribunal, which assembled at once — so hurried were the pro- 
ceedings. Great alarm existed in the community. Eumors 
of the wildest character prevailed regarding a rescue by North- 
ern men, and also in regard to the strength of Cook, still in 
the mountains. Said a dispatch from the Charlestown tele- 
graph office : 

" There is an evident intention to hurry the trial through, and bxccute 
the prisoners as soon as possible— fearing attempts to rescue them. It 
is rumored that Brown is desirous of making a full statement of his mo- 
tives and intentions through the press, but the court has refused all ac- 
cess to reporters — feariug that he may put forth something calculated 
to influence the public mind, and to have a bad effect on the slaves." 

" The reason given for hurrying the trial is, that the people of the 
whole country are kej)t in a state of excitement, and a large armed 
force is required to prevent attempts at rescue." 

» The students of Winchester Medical College skinned the body, separated the 
muscular and venous systems and injected the veins, dried and varnished the bones, 
and kept the whole on exhibition in their anatomical museum. The skin was to 
liave been stuifed, but was, it is understood, prepared into leather and used for 
inaking various articles of viriu. 



•THE TRIAL. 539 

The grand jury was called at two o'clock p. m., Tuesday, 
(Oct. 25th,) and charged by Judge Parker. The charge was 
a queer commingling of judicial honesty and pro-slave pre- 
judgment. While it demanded for Brown an impartial hear- 
ing, it assumed his guilt as certain, and used such terms as 
must infl.ame the minds of Virginians against the prisoners. 
The jurymen did not perfect their indictment until noon of 
Wednesday, the 26th, when a " true bill" was reported against 
each of the prisoners arraigned : first, for conspiring with ne- 
groes to incite an insurrection; second, for treason to the Com- 
monwealth of Virginia; third, for murder. Upon all these 
counts of the indictment the trial at once proceeded — not upon 
one, as is usual. Brown, still ill and feeble from wounds, ask- 
ed for a short delay to recover his strength and to prepare his 
case; but, it was refused. The prisoners all plead "not guilty." 
Their appearance was thus noticed by a correspondent of a 
Richmond paper : 

" The prisoners were brought into court, accompanied by a body of 
armed men. Cannon were stationed in front of the court house, and an 
armed guard were jjatrolling round the jail. Brown looked something 
oetter, and his eye was not so much swollen. Stevens had to be sup- 
j)orted, and reclined on a matti-ess on the floor of the court room — evi- 
dently unable to sit. He has the appearance of a dying man, breathing 
with great diflaculty. The prisoners were compelled to stand during 
the indictment, but it was with difficulty. Stevens being held uj)right 
by two liailiffs." 

The State elected to try Brown first, when Lawson Botts, 
the counsel assigned for his defense, by the court, asked for 
delay, citing Brown's unfitness for trial. No respite, however, 
was permitted. The court evidently deemed it impolitic to 
give the culprit chance for sturdy defense. A jury was im- 
panneled during the afternoon, after much labor to obtain those 
wIk) " had not been at Harper's Ferry." Mr. Botts, while he 
tried to do his duty, evidently did not care to face public sen- 
timent ; the j Liry was impanneled and sworn in without a chal- 
lenge. 

On Thursday morning, October 27th, John Brown's trial 
opened. It is unnecessary to detail the proceedings. Counsel 
for the prisoners, which had been sent for, almost hourly was 



540 THE CONSPIRACY OF JOHN BROWN. 

expected; but, no suspension of the trial was permitted. 
Thursday and Friday were spent in the examination of wit- 
nesses. Brown's counsel elicited many facts going to prove his 
client's humanity ; but, before the court stood those who had 
witnessed, or participated in, the conflict of Monday and Tues- 
day : no Virginia jury could be expected to regard Brown, in 
the face of their testimony, other than as a criminal of the worst 
class. One of those who had assisted in the murder of Thomp- 
son, confessed the deed and its brutal circumstances ; but, not 
a thought prevailed of crime in his case. Counsel for Brown 
arrived Friday. A brief respite was asked by them to look 
into the case; still, all delays, for any cause, were denied. 
During Saturday witnesses for the defense were introduced. 
The most sought to be proven by them was Brown's freedom 
from malice in his acts and his merely defensive attitude jn all 
cases where life was taken. These points appear to have been 
well sustained. His counsel (composed of Messrs. Geoi-ge H. 
Hoyt, of Boston, Hiram Griswold, of Cleveland, 0., and Sam'l 
Chilton, of Washington City) sought, by various technicalities, 
to gain time — to try on one count only, &c., but, all efforts 
failed. Monday the prosecution and defense made their argu- 
ments. At two o'clock the jury retired, and, in less than an 
hour, returned with a verdict of guilty on all the counts of the 
indictment. One present wrote of the proceedings, at this 
point : 

" Not the slightest sound was beard in the vast crowd as this ver- 
dict was returned and read. Not the slightest expression of elation or 
triumph was uttered from the hundreds present, who, a moment before, 
outside the court, joined in heaping threats and imprecations on his 
head ; nor was this strange silence interruj^ted during the whole of the 
time occupied by the forms of the court. Old Brown himself said not 
even a Avord, but, as on any previous day, turned to adjust hisiJallet, 
and then composedly stretched himself upon it. 

"Mr. Chilton moved an arrest of judgment, both on account of errors 
in the indictment and errors in the verdict. The objection in regard to 
the indictment has already been stated. The prisoner had been tried 
for an offense not appearing on the record of the grand jury. The ver- 
dict was not on each count separately, but was a general verdict on the 
whole indictment." 

This motion was argued on the succeeding day but denied, 



brown's speech. 541 

and Brown was remanded to jail for sentence. Coppoc's case 
was then taken up (Nov. 1st) and ended (Nov. 2d) in his con- 
viction. Brown, to save tinie, was brought into court for sen- 
tence, during the absence of the jury r.i the second case. He 
was able to stand, and addressed the court. We may quote : 

"In the first place, I deny every thing but what I have all along ad- 
mitted — the design on my j^art to free the slaves. I intended certainly 
to have made a clear thing of that matter, as I did last Winter, when I 
went into Missouri, and there took slaves without the snapjiing of a 
gun on either side, moved them through the country, and finally left 
them in Canada. I designed to have done the same thing again, on a 
larger scale. That was all I intended. I never did intend murder or 
treason, or the destruction of projierty, or to excite or incite slaves to 
rebellion, or to make insurrection. 

" I have another objection : and that is, it is unjust that I should suf- 
fer such a penalty. Had I interfered in the manner which I admit, and 
which I admit has been fairly proved — (for I admire the truthfulness 
and candor of the greater portion of the witnesses who have testified in 
this case) — had I so interfered in behalf of the rich, the powerful, the 
intelligent, the so-called great, or in behalf of any of their friends, either 
father, mother, brother, sister, wife or children, or any of that class, and 
suffered and sacrificed what I have in this interference, it would have 
been all right, and every man in this court would have deemed it an act 
worthy of reward rather than iDunishment. 

" This court acknowledges, as I suppose, the validity of the Law of 
God. I see a book kissed here which I suppose to be the Bible, or, at 
least, the New Testament. That teaches me that all things ' whatsoever 
I would that men should do unto me, I should do even so to them.' It 
teaches me further, to ' remember them that are in bonds as bound with 
them.' I endeavored to act up to that instruction. I say, I am yet too 
young to understand that God is any respecter of persons. I believe 
that to have interfered as I have done, as I have always freely admitted 
I have done, in behalf of His despised jioor, was not wrong, but right. 
Now, if it is deemed necessary that I should forfeit my life for the fur- 
therance of the ends of justice, and mingle my blood further with the 
blood of my children, and with the blood of millions in this slave coun- 
try whose rights are disregarded by wicked, cruel and unjust enactments 
— I submit : so let it be done. 

" Let me say one word further. 

" I felt entirely satisfied with the treatment I have received on my 

trial. Considering all the circumstances, it has been more generous than 

I expected. But I feel no consciousness of guilt. I have stated from 

the first what was my intention and what was not. I never had any 

67 



542 THE CONSPIKACY OF JOHN BROWN. 

design against the life of any person, nor any disposition to commit 
treason, or excite slaves to rebel, or make any general insurrection. I 
never encouraged any man to do so, but always discouraged any idea 
of that kind. 

" Let me say, also, a word in regard to the statements made by some 
of those connected with me. I hear it has been stated by some of them 
that I have induced them to join me. But the contrary is true. I do 
not say this to injure them, but regretting their weakness. There is not 
one of them but joined me of his own accord, and the greater part at 
their own expense. A number of them I never saw, and never had a 
word of conversation with, till the day they came to me, and that was 
for the purpose I have stated. 
" Now I have done." 

He was sentenced to be hanged on Friday, Dec. 2d. He was 
■ kept a close prisoner, and a powerful military guard was de- 
tailed for duty. The excitement which waited upon these 
proceedings was prodigious. In every section of the South all 
classes were anxious for news. The Virginians, fearing a res- 
cue, acted with extreme caution. Brown was kindly treated ; 
wrote and received many letters ; had free frequent interviews 
with visitors and friends; and, would appear to have enjoyed 
perfect serenity of mind. His letters, indeed, are remarkable 
evidences of his clear understanding, his devotion to what he 
deemed duty, and his resignation. They are, at once, very in- 
spiriting and very pathetic, and have not failed to extort from 
his worst enemies words of admiration. One other significant 
feature of his case must be mentioned : the letters of condo- 
lence and of money contributions which flowed in upon him 
from most unexpected sources. These letters proved that sym- 
pathy for him and his work was wide spread : if Brown was 
insane so were his thousand sympathisers.' Many ministers of 

* In the report of his interview with a son of Governor Wise, we have this testi- 
mony : " Brown said he did not recognize any slaveholder, lay or clerical, or any 
man sympathizing with slavery, as a Christian. He gave the same reason yester- 
day for his refusal to accept the services of some clergymen who called upon hiin. 
He also said he would as soon be attended to the scaffold by blacklegs or robbers 
of the worst kind as by slaveholding ministers, or ministers sympathizing with 
slavery, and that if he had liis choice he would prefer being followed to the scaf- 
fold by barefooted, barelegged, ragged negro children, and their old gray-headed 
slave-mother, than by clergymen of this character. He would feel, he said, much 
prouder of such an escort, and wished he could have it." There is an Apostolic 
Bublimity ia thia. 



THE FINAL SCENE. 54S 

the Gospel, among others, gained access to his room — some of 
them to argue the divine right of man in man. All of these 
Brown dismissed peremptorily. He refused, in all instances, 
the prayers of every man who was of pro-slavery views. His 
stern, outspoken hate of the " accursed institution" excited the 
astonishment, we are told, of Virginians. 

By November 24th excitement became so great that the 
military force in and around Charlestown was largely augment- 
ed and martial law was proclaimed. After that it was difficult 
to obtain access to the town, and we only have detached pic- 
tures of his life up to the day of execution. He spent the lat- 
ter portion of his days in preparing a document for his family 
— understood to be not so much a defense as an exposition of 
his acts and his views. This interesting document never 
reached its direction. It doubtless was destroyed by the Vir- 
ginia authorities, who, in court and out of it, betrayed much 
anxiety to suppress the utterance of anti-slavery views. Upon 
that point comment might prove interesting. 

Wednesday before the execution, Mrs. Brown, under escort 
of the military, reached Charlestown and had an interview with 
her husband. It was a very sad meeting, but Brown was 
thoroughly resigned and resolute. His wife bore the affliction 
with a fortitude worthy of all praise. 

The execution took place on the day allotted by law, in the 
midst of an iniposing military display. ; The spot chosen was 
on a hill-side near to the town, from which the vast concourse 
of spectators could behold the sight. Brown was invincible to 
the last — betraying not a shadow of fear. He went into eter- 
nity like one gliding off into repose. After death the body 
was given over to Mrs. Brown, and, by her, borne to their farm 
at North Elba, N. Y., where it was buried with circumstances 
of profound interest. Wendall Phillips, of Boston, pronounced 
the funeral oration — one of the most impressive and eloquent 
orations ever uttered on this continent. By him, and by aboli- 
tionists of the radical school, Brown was crowned with the 
laurels of martyrdom. 

Cook was captured on Friday, Oct. 28th. He was seized in 
Pennsylvania by men on his track for the reward offered. His 



544: THE CONSPIRACY OF JOHN BROWN. 

trial qaickly followed, and he was hung, along with Hazlitt, 
Dec. 16th. Their bodies were sent to New Jersey for buriaL 
The execution of Stevens, Copeland, and Green passed off 
without much notice — the excitement having culminated in 
Brown's exit from life. 

Thus closed the tragedy of John Brown's scheme for slavo 
liberation. Its sad results elicited, from a large majority of 
the North, not a word of regret The act of Brown was at 
war with the peace of society and the comity of States ; it had 
for its aim the overthrow of recognized institutions and the 
instatement of a reign of terror ; its ends could only be attain- 
ed through desolation and blood. But a select few were " rad- 
cal" enough to sustain his course, much as the majority of 
men might have admu-ed his heroism and his truth of souL 
For a season abolitionists of the Garrisonian school reposed 
under a load of obloquy, and it appeared as if slavery were 
strengthened by the war of words which succeeded. When 
Congress assembled the subject was introduced, and Mr. Dou- 
glas, by a bill to punish sedition, sought to render further in- 
vasions high State crimes. In the debates which ensued par- 
tisan capital was sought to be made against the party then for 
the first time in the ascendancy — the anti-slavery, or "Kepub- 
lican" party. But, the Eepublican leaders disclaimed any 
sympathy with Brown, whose cause they censured as revolu- 
tionary and reprehensible. , A feeling of uneasiness prevailed, 
in Southern circles ; some danger seemed impending ; vague' 
apprehensions of further invasion were entertained ; and such I 
intimations were made by Mr. Mason and other Southern Sen- ' 
ators as induced the appointment (Dec. loth) by the Senate, 
(agreeable to resolutions introduced by Mason, Dec 5th, 1859.) 
of a committee of inquiry, to investigate the Harper's Ferry 
affair and its ramifications, and to report if any cause for fur- j 
ther alarm existed. This committee, in th© prosecution of its ' 
investigations, summoned as witnesses, among others, Thad- j 
deus Hyatt, of New York, John Brown, Jr., of Ohio, F. B. ^ 
Sanborn and James Eedpath, of Massachusetts. These men 
all failed to answer the summons, ^and writs for their arrest for ' 
contempt of authority, were issued by vote of the Senate, Feb. 



AEREST OF WITNESSES. 545 

' 15th, 1860. Great excitement followed attempts to seize these 
persons. Brown and his neighbors armed, and defied the officer 
detailed for his arrest Sanborn was seized at Concord, N. H., 
•at night, but was rescued by his neighbors, and, under a writ 
^^of habeas corpus, had a hearing before Chief Justice Shaw, who 
declared the arrest illegal. Bedpath eluded the writ of arrest. 
Hyatt was borne to Washington. March 9th he appeared, 
with eminent counsel, before the Senate, to answer, 1st, why 
he had refused to obey the first summons to testify, and 2d, if 
he was then willing to appear before the committee and to an- 
swer such questions as might be required of him. Very ex- 
citing proceedings ensued. Hyatt's reply was, in substance, 
that the committee was commissioned with " powers such as 
were never before known or contemplated in this Eepublican 
Government ; powers that were inimical to freedom, subversive 
of liberty and in violation of the fundamental law of the land ; 
and to be resisted, 1st, because contrary to reason, and 2d, be- 
cause contrary to the Constitution," In support of this he sub- 
mitted his written argument — a very able paper, surveying the 
whole question involved, of congressional po Wei's and personal 
rights. In view of this protest Mason introduced a resolution 
to commit Hyatt to the common jail of the District, there to 
be kept in close custody until he should signify his willingness 
to answer such questions as might be propounded by the se- 
lect committee. Pending discussion on this order of incarce- 
ration, Hyatt was remanded to the custody of the Sergeant at 
Arms. March 12th, the resolution for close confinement vras 
passed, by a vote of 44 to 10. Hyatt, accordingly, was com- 
mitted to the common jail, and was, in most respects, treated 
as a common felon. An effort was made. May 28th, to grant 
him the privilege of the city limits as his bounds, but the mo- 
tion failed of consideration. He was kept in prison until June 
15th, when the select committee of five, through its chairman, 
Mason, reported — Mr. Doolittle, for himself and Collamer, the 
two Eepublican members, at the same time putting in their 
minority report Mason moved Hyatt's discharge, because the 
select committee of five being dissolved there was no other 
committee before which Hyatt could be cited. He was there- 



546 THE CONSPIKACT OF JOHN BEOWN" 

upon, released, having been incarcerated three months. Mason'? 
report was a lengthy document, the concluding portions of 
which we give in the Appendix. It is interesting as present- 
ing the Southern view of the affair. 



APPENDIX. 



JEFFERSON'S EIENTUCKY RESOLUTIONS OF '98. 

In the paper on the " Alien and Sedition Troubles" we refer to the 
celebrated Kentucky Resolutions of Nullification and State Supremacy 
which have ever since formed one of the fundamental princii^les of the 
"democratic" party. Their importance requires their repetition here 
at length. As passed, in their modified form, by the Kentucky Lecris- 
lature (Nov. 10th, 15th, 1798), they read: 

1. Resolved, That the several States composing the United States of America, are 
not united on the principle of unlimited submission to their general government; 
but by compact, under the style and title of a Constitution for the United States, 
and of amendments thereto, they constituted a general government for special pur- 
poses, delegated to that government certain definite powers, reserving, each State 
to itself, the residuary mass of right to their own self-government ; and, thatf when- 
soever the General Government assumes undelegated powers, its acts are unau- 
thoritative, void and of no force ; that to this compact each State acceded as a 
State, and is an integral party ; that this government, created by this compact, 
•was not made the exclusive or final judge of the extent of the powers delegated to 
itself ; since that would have made its discretion, and not the Constitution the 
measure of its powers; but, that, as in all other cases of compact among parties 
kaving no common judge, each party has an equal right to judge for Itself, as well 
of infractions as of the mode and measure of redress. 

2. Resolved, That the Constitution of the United States having delegated to Con- 
gress a power to punish treason, counterfeiting the securities and current coin of 
the United States, piracies and felonies committed on the high seas, and ofi'enses 
against the laws of nations, and no other crimes whatever; and it being true, as a 
general principle, and one *f the amendments to the Constitution having also de- 
clared, " that the powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, 
nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to 
the people," therefore also the same act of Congress, passed on the 14th day of 
July, 1798, and entitled " An act in addition to act entitled An act for the punish- 
ment of certain crimes against the United States ;" as also the act passed by them 
on the 27th day of June, 1798, entitled " An act to punish frauds committed on the 
Bank of the United States," (and all other their acts which assume to create, define 
or punish crimed other than those enumerated in the Constitution,) are altogether 
7oid and of no force, and that the power to create, define and punish such other 



54:8 APPENDIX. 

crimes is reserved, and of right appertains solely and exclusively, to tlie respective 
States, each within its own territory. 

6. Resolved, That it is true, as a general principle, and is also expressly declared 
by one of the amendments to the Constitution, that " the powers not delegated to 
the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited bynt to the States, are re- 
Berved to the States respectively, or to the people;" and that no power over the 
freedom of religion, freedom of speech, or freedom of the press being delegated to 
the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, all lawful 
powers respecting the same did of right remain, and were reserved to the States 
or to the people ; that thus was manifested their determination to retain to them- 
selves the right of judging how far the Ifcentiousness of speech and of the press 
may be abridged without lessening their useful freedosn, and how far those abuses 
which cannot be separated from their use should be tolerated rather than the use 
be destroyed ; and thus also they guarded against all abridgement by the United 
States of the freedom of religious principles and exercises, and retained to them- 
selves the right of protecting the same, as this State, by a law passed on the gene- 
ral demand of its citizens, had already protected them from all human restraint or 
interference ; and that, in addition to this general principle and express declara- 
tion, another and more special provision has been made by one of the amendments 
to the Constitution which expressly declares, that " Congress shall make no laws 
respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof, or 
abridging the freedom of speech or of the press," thereby guarding in the same 
Bentence, and under the same words, the freedom of religion, of speech and the 
press, insomuch that whatever violates either, throws down the sanctuary which 
covers the others ; and that libels, falsehood and defamation, equally with heresy 
and false religion, are withheld from the cognizance of Federal tribunals. That 
therefore the act of the Congress of the United States, passed on the 14th of July, 
1798, entitled " An act in addition to the act entitled An act for the punishment of 
certain crimes against the United States," which does abridge the freedom of the 
press, is not law, but is altogether void and of no force. 

4. Resolved, That alien friends are under the jurisdiction and protection of the 
laws of the State wherein they are ; that no power over them has been delegated 
to the United States, nor prohibited to the individual States distinct from their 
power over citizens ; and it being true, as a general principle, and one of the 
amendments to the Constitution having also declared, that " the powers not dele- 
gated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited to the States, are 
reserved to the States respectively, or to the people," the act of the Congress of 
the United States, passed the 22d day of June, 1798, entitled " An act concerning 
aliens," which assumes power over alien friends not delegated by the Constitu- 
tion, is not law, but is altogether void and of no force. 

5. Resolved, That in addition to the general principle as well as the express de- 
claration, that powers not delegated are reserved, another and more special pro- 
vision inferred in the Constitution, from abundant caution has declared, " that the 
migration and importation of such persons as any of the States now existing sliall 
think proper to admit, shall not be prohibited by the Congress prior to the year 
1808." That this commonwealth does admit the migration of alien friends describ- 
ed as the subject of the said act concerning aliens ; that a provision against pro- 
hibiting their migration, is a provision against all acts equivalent thereto, or it 



THE KENTUCKY KESOLUTIONS. 649 

would be nugatory ; tliat to remove them when migrated Is equivalent to a prohi- 
bition of their migration, and is, therefore, contrary to the said provision of the 
Constitution, and void. 

6. Besolved, That the imprisoument of a person under the protection of the laws 
of this commonwealth on his failure to obey the simple order of the President to 
depart ou^ of the United States, as is undertaken by said act, entitled, " An act 
concerning aliens," is contrary to the Constitution, one amendment in which has 
provided, that " no person shall be deprived of liberty without due process of law," 
and that another having provided, " that in all criminal prosecutions, the accused 
shall enjoy the right to a public trial by sm. impartial jury, to be informed as to the 
nature and cause of the accusation, to be confronted with the witnesses against 
him, to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have 
assistance of counsel for his defense," the same act undertaking to authorize the 
President to remove a person out of the United States who is under the protection 
of the law, on his own suspicion, without jury, without public trial, without con- 
frontation of the witnesses against him, without having witnesses iu his favor, 
without defense, without counsel, is contrary to these provisions also of the Con- 
stitution, is therefore not law, but utterly void and of no force. 

That transferring the power of judging any person who is under the protection 
of the laws, from the courts to the P^-esident of the United States, as is undertaken 
by the same act concerning aliens, is against the article of the Constitution which, 
provides, " that the judicial power of the United States shall be vested in the 
courts, the judges of which shall hold their office during good behavior," and that 
the said act ft void for that reason also ; and it is further to be noted that this 
transfer of judiciary power is to that magistrate of the General Government who 
already possesses all the executive, and a qualified negative on all the legislative 
powers. 

7. Resolved, That the construction applied by the General Government (as is 
evident by sundry of their proceedings) to those parts of the Constitution of the 
United States which delegate to Congress power to lay and collect taxes, duties, 
imposts, excises ; to pay the debts, and provide for the common defense and gene- 
ral welfare of the United States, and to make all laws which shall be necessary 
and proper for carrying into execution the powers vested by the Constitution in 
the Government of the United States, or any department thereof, goes to the de- 
struction of all the limits prescribed to their power by the Constitution: That 
words meant by that instrument to be subsidiary only to the execution of the lim- 
ited powers, ought not to be so construed as themselves to give unlimited powers, 
nor a part so to be taken as to destroy the whole residue of the instrument : Tliat 
the proceedings of the General Government under color of those articles, will be 
a fit and necessary subject of revisal and correction at a time of greater tranquility, 
while those specified in the preceding resolutions call for immediate redress. 

8. Resolved, That the preceding resolutions be transmitted to the senators and 
representatives in Congress from this commonwealth, who are ejijoined to present 
the same to their respective Houses, and to use their best endeavors to procure at 
the next session of Congress a repeal of the aforesaid unconstitutional and obnox- 
ious acts. 

9. Resolved lastly, That the Governor of this commonwealth be, and is hereby 
authorized and requested to communicate the preceding resolutions to the Legis- 



550 APPENDIX 

latureg of the seveial States, to assure tliera tliat this commonwealth considers 
union for special National purposes, and particularly for those specified in their 
late Federal compact, to be friendly to the peace, happiness and prosperity of all 
the States — that, faithful to that compact, according to the plan, intent and mean- 
ing in which it was so understood and acceded to by the several parties, it is sin- 
cerely anxious for its preservation; that it does also believe, that to take from the 
States all the powers of self-government, and transfer them to a general and con- 
solidated Government, without regard to the special delegations and reservations 
solemnly agreed to in that compact, is not for the peace, happiness or prosperity 
of these States ; and that, therefore, this commonwealth is determined, as it doubts 
not its co-States are, to submit to undelegated and consequently unlimited powers 
in no man or body of men on earth ; that if the acts before specified should stand, 
these conclusions would flow from them; that the General Government may place 
any act they think proper on the list of crimes and punish it themselves, whether 
enumerated or not enumerated by the Constitution as cognizable by them ; that 
they may transfer its cognizance to the President or any other person, who may 
himself be the accuser, counsel, judge and jury, whose suspicions may be the evi- 
dence, his order the sentence, his officer the executioner,. and his breast the sole 
record of the transaction ; that a very numerous and valuable description of the 
inhabitants of these States, being by this precedent reduced as outlaws to the ab- 
solute dominion of one man, and the barriers of the Constitution thus swept from 
us all, and no rampart now remains against the passions and the power of a majo- 
rity of Congress, to protect from a like exportation or other grievous punishment 
the minority of the same body, the Legislatures, judges, governors and counsellors 
of the States, nor their other peaceable inhabitants who may venture to reclaim 
the constitutional rights and liberties of the States and people, or who, for other 
causes, good or bad, may be obnoxious to the views or marked by the suspicions 
of the President, or be thought dangerous to his or their elections or other inte- 
rests, public or personal; that the friendless alien has been selected as the safest 
subject for a first experiment ; but the citizen will soon follow, or rather has al- 
ready followed ; for, already has a Sedition act marked him as a prey : that these 
and successive acts of the same character, unless arrested on the threshold, may 
tend to drive these States into revolution and blood, and will furnish new calum- 
nies against republican governments, and new pretexts for those who wish it to 
be believed that man cannot be governed but by a rod of iron ; that it would be a 
dangerous delusion were a confidence in the men of our choice to silence our fears 
for the safety of our rights ; that confidence is everywhere the parent of despot- 
ism ; free government is founded in jealousy and not in confidence ; it is jealousy 
and not confidence which prescribes limited constitutions to bind down those whom 
we are obliged to trust with power ; that our Constitution has accordingly fixed 
the limits to which, and no farther, our confidence may go ; and let the honest ad- 
vocates of confidence read the Alien and Sedition acts, and say if the Constitution 
has not been wise in fixing limits to the government it created, and whether we 
should be wise in destroying those limits ? Let him say what the government is, 
if if be not a tyranny, which the men of our choice have conferred on the Presi- 
dent, and the President of our choice has assented to and accepted over the friendly 
strangers, to whom the mild spirit of our country and its laws has pledged hospi- 
tality and protection ; that the men of our choice have more respected the bare 



THE VIRGINIA RESOLUTIONS. 551 

suspicions of the President tlian the solid rights of innocence, the claims of jnstifi. 
cation, the sacred force of truth, and the forms and substance of law and justice- 
In questions of power, then, let no more be said of confidence in man, but bind 
him down from mischief by the chains of the Constitution. That this common- 
wealth does therefore call on the co-States for an expression of their sentiments 
on the acts concerning aliens, and for the punishment of certain crimes hereinbe- 
fore specified, plainly declaring whether these acts are or are not authorized by 
the Federal compact. And it doubts not that their sense will be so announced as 
to prove their attachment to limited government, whether general or particular, 
and that the rights and liberties of their co-States will be exposed to no dangers 
by remaining embarked on a common bottom with their own ; but they will con- 
cur with this commonwealth in considering the said acts as so palpably against the 
Constitution as to amount to an undisguised declaration, that the compact is not 
meant to be the measure of the powers of the General Government, but that it will 
proceed in the exercise over these States of all powers whatsoever. That they 
will view this as seizing the rights of the States and consolidating them in the 
hands of the General Government, with a power assumed to bind the States (not 
merely in cases made Federal) but in all cases whatsoever, by laws made, not with 
their consent, but by otliers against their consent ; that this would be to surren- 
der the form of government we have chosen, and live under one deriving its pow- 
ers from its own will, and not from our authority ; and that the co-States, recur- 
ring to their natural rights in cases not made Federal, will concur in declaring 
these void and of no force, and will each unite with this commonwealth in request- 
ing tneir repeal at the next session of Congress. 



MADISON'S VIRGINIA EESOLUTIONS OF '98. 

Following np the Kentucky Resolutions above given, Madison, in 
concert with Jefferson, ijroposed this series of resolves which were j)ass- 
ed by the Virginia Legislature Dec. 21st, 24th, 1798 : 

Resolved, That the General Assembly of Virginia doth unequivocally express a 
firm resolution to maintain and defend the Constitution of the United States, and 
the Constitution of this State, against every aggression, either foreign or domestic ; 
and that they will support the Government of the United States in all measures 
warranted by the former. 

That this Assembly most solemnly declares a warm attachment to the Union of 
the States, to maintain which it pledges its powers ; and, that for this end, it is 
their duty to watch over and oppose every infraction of those principles which 
constitute the only basis of that Union, because a faithful observance of them can 
alone secure its existence and the public happiness. 

That this Assembly doth explicitly and peremptorily declare, that it views the 
powers of the Federal Government, as resulting from the compact to which the 
States are parties, as limited by the plain sense and intention of the instrumen* 
constituting that compact, as no further valid than they are authorized by the 
grants enumerated in that compact; and that, incase of a deliberate, palpable 
and dangerous exercise of other powers not granted by the said compact, the 



552 APPENDIX. 

States, who are paHies thereto, have the right, and are in duty hound, to inter- 
pose, for arresting the progress of the evil, and for maintaining within their re- 
spective limits the authorities, rights and liberties appertaining to them. 

That the General Assembly doth also express its deep regret, that a spirit has, 
in sundry instances, been manifested by the Federal Government, to enlarge ita 
powers by forced constructions of the constitutional charter which defines them ; 
and that indications have appeared of a design to expound certain general phrases 
(which having been copied from the very limited grant of powers in the former 
Articles of Confederation, were the less liable to be misconstrued) so as to destroy 
the meaning and effect of the particular enumeration which necessarily explains 
and limits the general phrases, and so as to consolidate the States hy degrees into 
one sovereignty, the obvious tendency and inevitable result of which would be, to 
tra&sform the present republican system of the United States Into an absolute, or 
at best, a mixed monarchy. 

Thf^t the General Assembly doth particularly protest against the palpable and 
alarming infractions of the Constitution, In the two late cases of the " Alien and 
Sedition Acts," passed at the last session of Congress ; the first of which exercises 
a power nowhere delegated to the Federal Government, and which, by uniting 
legislative and judicial powers to those of the executive, subverts the general 
principles of free government, as well as the particular organization and positive 
provisions of the Federal Constitution ; and the other of which acts exercises, in 
like manner, a power not delegated by the Constitution, but, on the contrary, ex- 
pressly and positively forbidden by one of the amendments thereto ; a power 
which, more than any other, ought to produce universal alarm, because it is lev- 
eled against the right of freely examining public characters and measures, and of 
free communication among the people thereon, which has ever been justly deemed 
the only eflfectual guardian of every other right. 

That this State having by its Convention, which ratified the Federal Constitution, 
expressly declared, that among other essential rights, " the liberty of conscience 
ind the press cannot be canceled, abridged, restrained, or modified by any autho- 
rity of the United States," and from its extreme anxiety to guard these rights from 
every possible attack of sophistry or ambition, having with other States recom- 
mended an amendment for that purpose, which amendment was, in due time, an- 
nexed to the Constitution, it would mark a reproachful inconsistency and criminal 
degeneracy, if an indifference were now*shown to the most palpable violation of 
one of the rights, tlius declared and secured ; and to the establishment of a prece- 
dent which may be fatal to the other. 

That the good people of this Commonwealth having ever felt, and continuing to 
feel, the most sincere affection for their brethren of the other States, the truest 
anxiety for establishing and perpetuating the Union of all, and the most scrupu- 
lous fidelity to that Constitution which is the pledge of mutual friendship and the 
instrument of mutual happiness, the General Assembly doth solemnly appeal to 
the like dispositions in the other States, in confidence that they will concur with 
this Commonwealth In declaring, as it does hereby declare, that the acts aforesaid 
are unconstitutional ; and that the necessary and proper measures will be taken 
toy each for co-operating with this State, in maintaining, unimpaired, the authori- 
ties rights and liberties, reserved to the States respectively, or to the people. 

That the Governor be desired to transmit a copy of the foregoing resolutions to 



MR. MADISONS DEFENSE 553 

the executive authority of each of the other States, with a request that the same 
i»ay be communicated to the Legislatures thereof; and that a copy be furnished 
to eacli of the Senators and Representatives representing this State in the Con- 
gress of the United States. 

These resolves -were sent out to the States accompanied by an Ad- 
dress, prepared also by Madison, setting forth the reasons for their adop- 
tion and urging responses from the several States. None of the States 
responded favoralily to the resolutions, but, on the contrary, Maryland, 
Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Jersey. New York, Connecticut, Rhode 
Island, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Vermont disavowed the 
doctrine set up of a right in the State Legislatures to decide upon the 
validity of acts of Congress. The reply of Massachusetts, likewise, main- 
tained the constitutionality of the Alien and Sedition Laws as being 
justified by the exigency of the moment, and by the power of Congress to 
provide for the common defense. 



JA:MES MADISON'S DEFENSE. 

Throughout all of Madison's career, from the date of his service as 
President up to his decease, he wrote powerfully to combat the heresies 
of secession and nullification. His published works (Congressional 
edition) contain numerous papers valuable as expositions of the Consti- 
tution, of the power of Congress, of the Judiciarj^, &c. Did we not 
know that he was the author of the Virginia Resolutions of '98, and of 
the Address accompanying them, we should give them double weight as 
authority. 

In a letter to Nicholas P. Trist, not given in the " Madison Papers," 
we have the ex-President's views directly on the issues excited by South 
Carolina's attitude of nullification, in 1832, and also his own interpre- 
tation of the Virginia resolves. We quote this letter in order to place 
before our readers Madison's defense of himself and Jeflferson against 
the construction placed upon their '98 labors by the opponents of the 
State Rights dogmas, 

MoNTPELiER, Dec. 23d, 1832. 

Dear Sik: I have received yours of the 19th, inclosing some South Carolina pa- 
pers. There is in one of them some interesting views of the doctrine of secession, 
among which, one that had occurred to me, and which for the first time I have 
seen in print ; namely, that if one State can at will withdraw from the others, the 
others can withdraw from her, and turn her, nolentem volentem, out of the Union. 
Until of late there is not a State that would have abhorred such a doctrine more 
than South Carolina, or more dreaded an application of it to herself. The same 
may be said of the doctrine of nullification, which she now preaches as the only 
doctrine by which the Union can be saved. 

I partake of the wonder that the men you name should view secession in the 



554 APPENDIX. 

light mentioned. The essential difference between a free government and govern 
ments not free, is, that the former is founded in compact, the parties to which are 
mutually and equally bound by it. Neither of tliem, therefore, can have a greater 
right to break off from the bargain than the other or others have to hold him to it. 
And certainly there is nothing iu the Virginia resolutions of '98 adverse to tliis 
principle, which is that of common sense and common justice. The fallacy which 
draws a different conclusion from them, lies in confounding a single party with the 
parties to the constitutional c ompact of the United States. The latter having 
made the compact, may do what they will with it. The former, as one of the par- 
ties, owes fidelity to it till released by consent, or absolved by an intolerable abuse 
of the power created. In the Virginia resolutions and report, the plural number 
(States) is in every instance used, whenever reference is made to the authority 
which presided over the Government. As I am now known to have drawn those 
documents, I may say, as I do with a distinct recollection, that it was intentional. 
It was in fact required by the course of reasoning employed on the occasion. The 
Kentucky resolutions, being less guarded, have been more easily perverted. The 
pretext for the liberty taken with those of Virginia is the word " respective" pre- 
fixed to the " rights," &c., to be secured within the States. ■ Could the abuse of 
the expression have been foreseen or suspected, the form of it would doubtless 
have been varied. But what can be more consistent with common sense, than that 
all having the rights, &c., should unite in contending for the security of them to 
each? 

It is remarkable how closely the nullifiers, who make the name of Mr. Jefferson 
the pedestal for their colossal heresy, close their eyes and lips whenever his autho- 
rity is ever so clearly and emphatically against them. You have noticed * what lie 
Bays in his letters to Monroe and Carrington (p. 43 and 202, vol. 2d) with respect 
to the power of the old Congress to coerce delinquent States ; and his reasons for 
preferring for the purpose a naval to a military force ; and moreover, his remark 
that it was not necessary to find a right to coerce in the Federal articles, that be- 
ing inherent in the nature of a compact. It is high time that the claim to secede 
at will should be put down by the public opinion, and I am glad to see the task 
commenced by one who understands the subject.* 

I know nothing of what is passing at Richmond, more than what is seen in the 
newspapers. You were right in your foresight of the effect of passages in the late 
proclamation. They have proved a leaven for much fermentation there, and cre- 
ated an alarm against the danger of consolidation balancing that of disunion. I 
wish with you the legislature may not seriously injure itself by assuming the high 
character of mediator. They will certainly do so, if they forget that their real in- 
fluence will be in the inverse ratio of a boastful interposition of it. 

1 Iu a note to this refereuce Mr. Trist says : " These passages had been made use of in com- 
bating nullification, and in rescuing the fame of Jefferson and my native State trom the ' deep 
disgrace' of the paternity of that monstrous doctrine, which, as preached at this period, was a 
product— one of many similar products— of the fungus-brooding brain of the most pestilent of 
all the pestilent sophists by whom God's highest gift to man, the faculty of speech, has ever 
been perverted. The most pestilent, not from su;)erior ability— for as n thinker, ho was among 
the shallowest of the shallow— but from the magnitude of the theater upon which the accident 
of birth-place threw him, and the immensity, the incalculable immensity, of the human inte- 
rests, iu sporting with which his unholy ambition found its delight. 

" I have said ' in rescuing' that immortal name, instead of saying ' in endeavoring to rescue 



ESSAGE OF JEFFERSON. 555 



JEFFERSON'S MESSAGE ON BURR'S CONSPIRACY. 

On Tuesday, January 22d, 1807, the President sent in to Congress a 
special message relating to the Conspiracy of Aaron Burr and the action 
taken to bring the Conspirator to justice. It was as follows: 
To the Senate and House of 

Representatives of the United States : 

Agreeably to the request of tlie House of Representatives, communicated in their 
resolution of the 16th instant, I proceed to state under the reserve therein express- 
ed, information received touching an illegal combination of private individuals 
against the peace and safety of the Union, and a military expedition planned by 
them against the territories of a power in amity with the United States, with the 
measures I have pursued for suppressing the same. 

I had for some time been in the constant expectation of receiving such further 
information as would have enabled me to lay before the Legislature the termina- 
tion as well as the beginning and progress of this scene of depravity, so far as it 
has been acted on the Ohio and its waters. From this, the state of safety of the 
lower country might have been estimated on probable grounds ; and the delay 
was indulged the rather, because no circumstance had yet made it necessary to 
call in the aid of the legislative functions. Information, now recently communi- 
cated, has brought us nearly to the period contemplated. The mass of what I 
have received in the course of these transactions, is voluminous ; but little has 
been given under the sanction of an oath, so as to oonstitute formal and legal evi- 
dence. It is chiefly in the form of letters, often containing such a mixture of ru- 
mors, conjectures and suspicions, as renders it difiicult to sift out the real facts, 
and unadvisable to hazard more than general outlines, strengthened by current 
information, on the particular credibility of the relator. In this state of the evi- 
dence, delivered sometimes, too, under the restriction of private confidence, nei- 
ther safety nor justice will permit the exposing names, except that of the principal 
actor, whose guilt is placed beyond question. 

Some time in the latter part of September, I received intimations that designa 
were in agitation in the Western country unlawful and unfriendly to the peace of 
the Union ; and that the prime mover in these was Aaron Burr, heretofore distin- 
guished by the favor of his country. The grounds of these intentions being incon- 
clusive, the objects uncertain, and the fidelity of that country known to be firm, 



it.' For the seeming arrogance of tbis locution, some apology, if not a perfect warrant, will be 
found in the following extract from another letter of Mr. lladison, dated Sept. 23, 1831 : 

" ' Interruptions from my rheumatism, and a succession of less imwelcome guests, have de- 
layed the thauIvS now roudered for your several printed communications ; particularly the pam- 
phlet of Jlr. Everett, and the paper headed '' Nullification Theory." The former is an able and 
well written performance, and will be denied this character by few of the adverse party. If the 
latter does not silence the adversary, the explanation will lie between an impenetrable stupidity 
and an incurable prejudice. I hope the antidote will find its way into the channels which have 
most successfully circulated the poison.' " 

2 This refers to an article on " secession," under the signature " One of the '98 School," which 
had appeared in the Richmond Enquirer a few days before. Mr. Trist was the writer of the 
article. 



556 APPENDIX. 



the only measure taken was to urge the informants to use their best endeavors to 
get fill ther insight into the designs and proceedings of the suspected persons, and 
to communicate them to me. 

It was not till the latter part of October, that the objects of the conspiracy be- 
gan to be perceived ; but still so blended and involved in mystery, that nothing 
distinct could be singled out for pursuit. In this state of uncertainty as to the 
crime contemplated, the acts done, and the legal course to be pursued, I thought 
it best to send to the scene, where these things were principally in transaction, a 
person in whose integrity, understanding and discretion, entire confidence could 
be reposed, with instructions to investigate the plots going on, to enter into con- 
ference (for which he had suflScient credentials) with the Governors and all other 
officers, civil and military, and, with their aid, to do on the spot whatever should 
be necessary to discover the designs of the conspirators, arrest their means, brmg 
tlieir persons to punishment, and to call out the force of the country to suppress 
any unlawful enterprise in which it should be found they were engaged. By this 
time it was known that many boats were under preparation, stores of provisions 
collecting, and an unusual number of suspicious characters in motion on the Ohio 
and its waters. Besides dispatching the confidential agent to that quarter, orders 
were at the same time sent to the Governors of the Orleans and Mississippi Terri- 
tories, and to the commanders of the land and naval forces there, to be on their 
guard against surprise, and in constant readiness to resist any enterprise which 
might be attempted on the vessels, posts, or other objects under their care ; and 
on the 8th of November instructions were forwarded to General Wilkinson, to has- 
ten an accommodation with the Spanish commandant on the Sabine, and as soon 
as that was effected, to fall back with his principal force to the hither bank of the 
Mississippi, for the defense of the interesting points on that river. By a letter re- 
ceived from that officer on the 25th of November, but dated October 21st, we 
learnt that a confidential agent of Aaron Burr had been deputed to him with com- 
munications, partly written in cypher and partly oral, explaining his designs, ex- 
aggerating his resources, and making such offers of emolument and command, to 
engage him and the army in his unlawful enterprise, as he had flattered himself 
would be successful. The General, with the honor of a soldier and fidelity of a 
good citizen, immediately dispatched a trusty officer to me, with information of 
what had passed, proceeding to establish such an understanding with the Spanish 
commandant on the Sabine, as permitted him to withdraw his force across the 
Mississippi, and to enter on measures for opposing the projected enterprise. 

The General's letter, which came to hand on the 25th of November, as has been 
mentioned, and some other information received a few days earlier, when brought 
together, developed Burr's general designs, different parts of which only had been 
revealed to different informants. It appeared that he contemplated two distinct 
objects, which might be carried on either jointly or separately, and either the one 
or the other first, as circumstances should direct. One of these was the severance 
of the Union of these States by the Alleghany mountains ; the other an attack on 
Mexico A third object was provided, merely ostensible, to wit, the settlement 
of a pretended purchase of a tract of country on the Wachita, claimed by a Baron 
Bastrop. This was to serve as the pretext for all his preparations, an allurement 
for such followers as really wished to acquire settlements in that country, and a 



MESSAGE OF JEFFERSON. 657 

cover under wLicli to retreat in the event of a final discomfiture of both branches 
of liis real design. 

He found at once that the attachment of the Western country to the present 
Union was not to be shaken; that its dissolution could not be effected with tlie 
consent of its inhabitants, and that his resources were inadequate, as yet, to effect 
it by force. He took his course then at once, determined to seize on New Orleans, 
plunder the bank there, possess himself of the military and naval stores, and pro- 
ceed on his expedition to Mexico, and to this object all his means and preparations 
were now directed. He collected from all the quarters where himself or his agents 
possessed influence, all the ardent, restless, desperate and disaffected persons, who 
were ready for any enterprise analagous to their characters. He seduced good 
and well meaning citizens, some by assurances that he possessed the confidence 
of the Government, and was acting under its secret patronage, a pretence which 
procured some credit from the state of our differences with Spain ; and others bj 
offers of land in Bastrop's claim on the Wachita. 

This was tlie state of my information of his proceedings about the last of Novem^ 
ber, at which time, therefore, it was first possible to take specific measures to 
meet them. The proclamation of November 27th, two days after the receipt of 
General Wilkinson's information, was now issued. Orders were dispatched to 
every interesting point on the Ohio and Mississippi, from Pittsburg to New Orleans, 
for the employment of such force, either of the regulars or of Ihe militia, and of 
such proceedings also of the civil authorities, as might enable them to seize on all 
the boats and stores provided for the enterprise, to arrest the persons concerned, 
and to suppress, effectually, the further progress of the enterprise. A little before 
the receipt of these orders in the State of Ohio, our confidential agent, who had 
been diligently employed in investigating the conspiracy, had acquired iaformation 
sufficient to open himself to the Governor of that State, and apply for the immedi- 
ate exertion of the authority and power of the State to crush the combination'. 
Governor TiflBn and the Legislature, with a promptitude, an energy, and patriotic 
zeal, which entitle them to a distinguished place in the affection of their sister 
States, effected the seizure of all the boats, provisions, and other prepnrationa 
within their reach, and thus gave a first blow, materially disabling the enterprise 
in its outset. 

In Kentucky a premature attempt to bring Burr to justice, without a sufficient 
evidence for his conviction, had produced a popular impression in his favor, and a 
general disbelief in his guilt. This gave him an unfortunate opportunity of hasten- 
ing his equipments. The arrival of the proclamation and orders, and the applica- 
tion and information of our confidential agent, at length awakened the authorities 
of that State to the truth, and then produced the same promptitude and energy 
of which the neighboring State had set the example. Under an act of their Legis- 
lature, of December 23d, militia was instantly ordered to different important points, 
and measures taken for doing whatever could yet be done. Some boats (accounts 
vary from five to double or treble that number) and persons (differently estimated 
from one to three hundred) had in the mean time passed the Falls of Ohio, to 
rendezvous at the mouth of the Cumberland, with others expected down that 
river. 

Not apprised, till very late, that boats were building on the Cumberland, the 
effect cf the proclamation had been trusted to for some time in the State of Teu- 

69 



558 APPEJ3-t)is- 

hesseB; But, on tlie l9tli of Cecembel-, similar Communications and instructions, 
with those to the neighboring States, were dispatched by express to the Governor, 
and a General officer of the Western division of the State ; and, on the 23d of De- 
cember, our confidential agent left Frankfort for Nashville, to put into activity the 
means of that State also. But, by information received yesterday, I learn that on 
the 23d of December, Mr. Burr descended the Cumberland with two boats merely 
of accommodation, carrying with him from that State no quota toward his unlawful 
enterprise. Whether, after the arrival of the proclamation, of the orders, or of 
our agent, any exertion which could be made by that State, or the orders of the 
Governor of Kentucky for calling out the militia at the mouth of the Cumberland, 
would be in time to arrest these boats, and those from the Falls of the Ohio, is 
still doubtful. 

On the whole, the fugitives from the Ohio, with their associates from Cumber- 
land, or any other place in that quarter, cannot threaten serious danger to the city 
of New Orleans. 

By the same express of December 19th, orders were sent to the Governors of 
Orleans and Mississippi, supplementary to those which had been given on the 25th 
of November, to hold the militia of their Territories in readiness to co-operate, for 
their defense, with the regular troops and armed vessels then under command of 
General Wilkinson. Great alarm, indeed, was excited at New Orleans by the ex- 
aggerated accounts of Mr. Burr, disseminated through his emissaries, of the armies 
and navies he was to assemble there-. General Wilkinson had arrived there him- 
self on the 24th of November, and had immediately put into activity the resources 
of the place, for the purpose of its defense ; and, on the 10th of December, he was 
joined by his troops from the Sabine. Great zeal was shown by the inhabitants 
generally ; the merchants of the place readily agreeing to the most laudable exer- 
tions and sacrifices for manning the armed vessels with their seamen ; and the other 
citizens manifesting unequivocal fidelity to the Union, and a determined spirit of 
resistance to their expected assailants. 

Surmises have been hazarded that this enterprise is to receive aid from certain 
foreign powers. But these surmises are without proof or probability. The wis- 
dom of the measures sanctioned by Congress at its last session, has placed us in 
the paths of peace and justice with the only powers with whom we had any differ- 
ences ; and nothing has happened since which makes it either their interest or 
ours to pursue another course. No change of measures has taken place on our 
part ; none ought to take place at this time. With the one, friendly arrangement 
was then proposed, and the law, deemed necessary on the failure of that, was sus- 
pended to give time for a fair trial of the issue. With the same power friendly ar. 
rangement is now proceeding, under good expectations, and the same law deemed 
necessary on failure of that, is still suspended, to give time for a fair trial of the 
issue. With the other, negotiation was in like manner then preferred, and pro- 
visional measures only taken to meet the event of rupture. With the same power 
aegotiation is still preferred, and provisional measures only are necessary to meet 
the event of rupture. While, therefore, we do not deflect in the slightest degree 
from the course we then assumed, and are still pursuing, with mutual consent, to 
restore a good understanding, we are not to impute to them practices as irrecon- 
cilable to interest as to good faith, and changing necessarily the relations of peace 
and justice between us to those of war. These surmises, are, therefore, to be im- 



MESSAGE OF PRESIDEN- T JACKSON'. 559 

puted to the vauntings of the author of this enterprise, to multiply his partisans by 
magnifying tlie belief of his prospects and support. 

By letters from General Wilkinson, of the 14th and 18th of December, which 
came to hand two days after the date of the resolution of the House of Represent- 
atives, that is to say, on the morning of the 18th instant, I received the important 
affidavit, a copy of which I now communicate, with extracts of so much of the let- 
ters as comes within the scope of the resolution. By these it will be seen that of 
three of the principal emissaries of Mr. Burr, whom the General had caused to be 
apprehended, one had been liberated by habeas corptis, and two others, being those 
particularly employed in the endeavor to corrupt the General and Army of the 
United States, have been embarked by him for ports in the Atlantic States, proba- 
bly on the consideration that an impartial trial could not be expected during the 
present agitation of New Orleans, and that that city was not as yet a safe place of 
confinement. As soon as these persons shall arrive, they will be delivered to the 
custody of the law, and left to such course of trial, both as to the place and pro- 
gress, as its functionaries may direct. The presence of the highest judicial authori- 
ties, to be assembled at this place within a few days, the means of pursuing a 
sounder course of proceedings here than elsewhere, and the aid of the Executive 
means, should the judges have occasion to use them, render it equally desirable 
for the criminals as for the public, that, being already removed from the place 
where they were first apprehended, the first regular arrest should take place here, 
and the course of proceedings receive here the proper dii-ection. 

TH. JEFFERSON. 



JACKSON'S MESSAGE ON NULLIFICATION. 

The Message submitted to Congress January IGtb, 1833, by President 
Jackson, iu transmitting his Proclamation, is a document of so much 
importance that we here lay before our readers those portions of it which 
have special reference to our text. 

Since the date of my last annual Message, I have had officially transmitted to me 
by the Governor of South Carolina, which I now communicate to Congress, a copy 
of the ordinance passed by the convention which assembled at Columbia, in the 
State of South Carolina, in November last, declaring certain acts of Congress there- 
in mentioned, within the limits of that State, to be absolutely null and void, and 
making it the duty of the Legislature to pass such laws as would be necessary to 
carry the same into effect from and after the 1st of February next. 

The consequences to which this extraordinary defiance of the just authority of 
the Government might too surely lead, were clearly foreseen, and it was impossi- 
ble for me to hesitate as to my own duty in such an emergency. 

The ordinance had been passed, however, without any certain knowledge of the 
recommendation which, from a view of the interests of the nation at large, the 
Executive had determined to submit to Congress; and a hope was it bulged that, 
by frankly explaining his sentiments, and the nature of those duties which the cri- 
Bis would devolve upon him, the authorities of South Carolina might be indyiced to 



560 APPENDIX. 

retrace their steps. In this hope, I determined to issue my proclamation of the 
loth of December last, a copy of which I now lay before Congress. 

I regret to inform you that these reasonable expectations have not been realized, 
and that the several acts of the Legislature of South Carolina, which I now lay be- 
fore you, and which have, all and each of them, finally passed, after a knowledge 
of the desire of the Administration to modify the laws complained of, are too well 
calculated, both in their positive enactments, and in the spirit of opposition which 
they obviously encourage, wholly to obstruct the collection of the revenue within 
the L'-xits of that State. 

Up to this period, neither the recommendation of the Executive in regard to oui 
financial policy and impost system, nor to the disposition manifested by Congress 
promptly to act on that subject, nor the unequivocal expression of the public will, 
in all parts of the Union, appears to have produced any relaxation in the measures 
of opposition adopted by the State of South Carolina ; nor is there any reason to 
hope that the ordinance and laws will be abandoned. 

I have no knowledge that an attempt has been made, or that it is in contempla- 
tion, to reassemble either the convent oner the Legislature; and it will be per- 
ceived that the interval before the 1st of February is too short to admit of the pre- 
liminary steps necessary for that purpose. It appears, moreover, that the State 
authorities are actively organizing their military resources, and providing the 
means, and giving the most solemn assurances of protection and support to all who 
shall enlist in opposition to the revenue laws. 

A recent proclamation of the present Governor of South Carolina has openly de- 
fied the authority of the Executive of the Union, and general orders from the head 
quarters of the State announced his determination to accept the services of volun- 
teers, and his belief that, should their country need their services, they will be 
found at the post of honor and duty, ready to lay down their lives in her defense. 
Under these orders, the forces referred to are directed to " hold themselves in 
readiness to take the field at a moment's warning ;" and in the city of Charleston, 
within a collection district and a port of entry, a rendezvous has been opened for 
the purpose of enlisting men for the magazine and municipal guard. Thus South 
Carolina presents herself in the attitude of hostile preparation, and ready even for 
military violence, if need be, to enforce her laws for preventing the collection of 
the duties within her limits. 

Proceedings thus announced and matured must be distinguished from menaces 
of unlawful resistance by irregular bodies of people, who, acting under temporary 
delusion, may be restrained by reflection, and the influence of public opinion. In 
the present instance, aggression may be regarded as committed whea it is officially 
authorized, and the means of enforcing it fully provided. 

Under these circumstances, there can be no doubt that it is the determination 
of the authorities of South Carolina fully to carry into effect their ordinance and 
laws after the 1st of February. It therefore becomes my duty to bring the sub- 
ject to the serious consideration of Congress, in order that such measures as they, 
in their wisdom, may deem fit, shall be seasonably provided ; and that it may be 
thereby understood that, while the Government is disposed to remove all just 
cause of complaint, as far as may be practicable consistently with a proper regard 
to the interests of the community at large, it is, nevertheless, determined that the 
•apremacy of the laws shall be maintained. 



MESSAGE OF PRESIDENT JACKSON". 561 

In making this communication, it appears to me to be proper not only that 1 
should lay before you the acts and proceedings of South Carolina, but that I should 
also fully acquaint you with those steps which I have already caused to be taken 
for the due collection of the revenue, and with my views of the subject generally, 
that the suggestions which the Constitution requires me to make, in regard to your 
future legislation, may be better understood. 

This subject having early attracted the anxious attention of the Executive, as 
soon as it was probable that the authorities of South Carolina seriously meditated 
resistance to the faithful execution of the revenue laws, it was deemed advisable 
that the Secretary of the Treasury should particularly instruct the officers of the 
United States in that part of the Union as to the nature of the duties prescribed by 
the existing laws. 

Instructions were accordingly issued on the 6th of November to the Collectors 
in that State, pointing out their respective duties, and enjoining upon each a firm 
and vigilant, but discreet performance of them in the emergency then appre- 
hended. 

I herewith transmit copies of these instructions, and of the letter addressed to 
the District Attorney requesting his co-operation. These instructions were dic- 
tated in the hope that, as the opposition to the laws by the anomalous proceeding 
of nullification was represented to be of a pacific nature, to be pursued, substan- 
tially, according to the forms of the Constitution, and without resorting, in any 
event, to force or violence, the measures of its advocates would be taken in con- 
formity with that profession ; and, on such a supposition, the means afforded by 
the existing laws would have been adequate to meet any emergency likely to 
arise. 

It was, however, not possible altogether to suppress apprehehsion of the excess- 
es to which the excitement prevailing in that quarter might lead ; but it certainly 
was not foreseen that the meditated obstruction to the laws would so soon openly 
assume its present character. 

Subsequently to the date of those instructions, however, the ordinance of the 
convention was passed, which, if complied with by the people of that State, must 
eflectually render inoperative the present revenue laws'within her limits. 
********** 

This solemn denunciation of the laws and authority of the United States has been 
followed up by a series of acts on the part of the authorities of that State, which 
manifest a determination to render inevitable a resort to those measures of self- 
defense which the paramount duty of the Federal Government requires ; but, upon 
the adoption of which, that State will proceed to execute the purpose it has avow- 
ed in this ordinance, of withdrawing from the Union. * * * 

I transmit a copy of Governor Hamilton's message to the Legislature of South 
Carolina, of Governor Hayne's inaugural address to the same body, as also of his 
proclamation, and a general order of the Governor and commander-in-chief, dated 
the 20th of December, giving public notice that the services of volunteers will be 
accepted under the act already referred to. 

If these measures cannot be defeated and overcome by the power conferred by 
the Constitution on the Federal Government, the Constitution must be considered 
as incompetent to its own defense, the supremacy of the laws is at an end, and the 
rights and liberties of the citizens can no longer receive protection from the Gov- 



562 APPENDIX. 

ernment of the Union. They not only abrogate the acts of Congress, commonTy 
called the tariff acts of 1828 and 1832, but they prostrate and sweep away at once 
and without exception, every act, and every part of every act, imposing any 
amount whatever of duty on any foreign merchandise ; and, virtually, every exist- 
ing act which has ever been passed authorizing the collection of the revenue, in- 
cluding the act of 1816, and also, the collection law of 1799, the constitutionality 
of which has never been questioned. It is not only those duties which are charged 
to have been imposed for the protection of manufactures that are thereby repealed, 
but all others, though laid for the purpose of revenue merely, and on articles in no 
degree suspected of being objects of protection. The whole revenue system of 
the United States in South Carolina is obstructed and overthrown ; and the Gov- 
ernment is absolutely prohibited from collecting any part of the public revenue 
within the limits of that State. Henceforth, not only the citizens of South Caroli- 
na and of the United States, but the subjects of foreign states, may import any 
description or quantity of merchandise into the ports of South Carolina, without 
the payment of any duty whatsoever. That State is thus relieved from the pay- 
ment of any part of the public burdens, and duties and imposts are not only ren- 
dered not uniform throughout the United States, but a direct and ruinous prefer- 
ence is given to the ports of that State over those of all the other States of the 
Union, in manifest violation of the positive provisions of the Constitution. 

In point of duration, also, those aggressions upon the authority of Congress, 
which, by the ordinance, are made part of the fundamental law of South Carolina, 
are absolute, indefinite, and without limitation. They neither prescribe the period 
when they shall cease, nor indicate any conditions upon which those who have 
thus undertaken to arrest the operation of the laws are to retrace their steps, and 
rescind their measures. They ofier to the United States no alternative but uncon- 
ditional submission. If the scope of the ordinance is to be received as the scale of 
concession, their demands can be satisfied only by a repeal of the whole system 
of revenue laws, and by abstaining from the collection of any duties and imposts 
whatsoever. 

It is true, that in the address to the people of the United States by the Conven- 
tion of South Carolina, after announcing the "fixed and final determination of the 
State in relation to the protecting system," they say " that it remains for us to 
submit a plan of taxation, in which we would be willing to acquiesce, in a liberal 
spirit of concession, provided we are met in due time, and in a becoming spirit, by 
the States interested in manufactures." In the opinion of the convention, an equi- 
table plan would be, that " the whole list of protected articles should be imported 
free of all duty, and that the revenue derived from import duties should be raised 
exclusively from the unprotected articles, or that whenever a duty is imposed upon 
protected articles imported, an excise duty of the same rate shall be imposed upon 
all similar articles manufactured in the United States." The address proceeds to 
state, however, that " they are willing to make a large offering to preserve the 
Union, and with a distinct declaration that it is a concession on our part, we will 
consent that the same rate of duty may be imposed upon the protected articles 
W\at shall be imposed upon the unprotected, provided that no more revenue be 
i.'''?cd than is necessary to meet the demands of the Government for constitutional 
p- )rpose^, and provided also that a duty substantially uniform be imposed upon all 
f /reign imports." 



MESSAGE OF PRESIDENT JACKSON. 6G3 

It is also true, that, in his message to the Legislature, when urging the necessity 
of providing " means of securing their safety by ample resources for repelling 
force by force," the Governor of South Carolina observes that he " cannot but 
think that, on a calm and dispassionate review by Congress, and the functionaries 
of the General Government, of the true merits of this controversy, the arbitration, 
by a call of a convention of all the States, which we sincerely and anxiously seek 
and desire, will be accorded to us." 

From the diversity of terms indicated in these two important documents, taken 
in connection with the progress of recent events in that quarter, there is too much 
reason to afjprehend, without in any manner doubting the intentions of those pub- 
lic functionaries, that neither the terms proposed in the address of the convention, 
nor those alluded to in the message of the Governor, would appease the excite- 
ment which has led to the present excesses. It is obvious, however, that, should 
the latter be insisted on, they present an alternative which the General Govern- 
ment of itself can by no possibility grant, since, by an express provision of the 
Constitution, Congress can call a convention for the purpose of proposing amend- 
ments only " on the application of the Legislatures of two-thirds of the States." 
And it is not perceived that the terms presented in the address are more practica- 
ble than those referred to in the message. 

It will not escape attention that the conditions on which it is said, in the address 
of the convention, they " would be willing to acquiesce," form no part of the ordi- 
nance. While this ordinance bears all the solemnity of a fundamental law, is to be 
authoritative upon all within the limits of South Carolina, and is absolute and un- 
conditional in its terms, the address conveys only the sentiments of the convention 
in no binding or practical form ; one is the act of tUe State, the other only the ex- 
pression of the opinion of the members of the convention. To limit the effect of 
that solemn act by any terms or conditions whatever, they should have been em- 
bodied in it, and made of import no less authoritative than the act itself. By the 
positive enactments of the ordinance, the execution of the laws of the Union is ab- 
solutely prohibited; and the address offers no other prospect of their being again 
restored, even in the modiiied form proposed, than what depends upon tlie impro- 
bable contingency, that, amid changing events and increasing excitement, tlie 
sentiments of the present members of the convention, and of their successors, will 
remain the same. 

It is to be regretted, however, that these conditions, even if they had been offer- 
ed in the same binding form, are so undefined, depend upon so many contingencies, 
and are so directly opposed to the known opinions and interests of the great body 
of the American people, as to be almost hopeless of attainment. The majority of 
the States and of the people will certainly not consent that the protecting duties 
shall be wholly abrogated, never to be re-enacted at any future time, or in any 
possible contingency. As little practicable is it to provide that " the same rate of 
duty shall be imposed upon the protected articles that shall be imposed upon the 
unprotected ;" which, moreover, would be severely oppressive to the poor, and, 
in time of war, would add greatly to its rigors. And though there can be no ob 
jection to the principle, properly understood, that no more revenue shall be raised 
than is necessary for the constitutional purposes of the Government, which prin- 
cipal has been already recommended by the Executive as the true basis of taxa- 



564 APPENDIX. 



lion, yet it is very certain that South Carolina alone cannot be permitted to decide 
W'liat these constitutional purposes are. * * * • * # 

By these various proceedings, therefore, the State of South Carolina has forced 
the General GovM-nment unavoidably, to decide the new and dangerous alternative 
of permitting a State to obstruct the execution of the laws within its limits, or see- 
ing it attempt to execute a threat of withdrawing from the Union. That portion 
of the people at present exercising the authority of the State, solemnly assert 
their right to do either, and as solemnly announce their determination to do one or 
tlie other. 

In my opinion, both purposes are to be regarded as revolutionary in their char- 
acter and tendency, and subversive of the supremacy of the laws and of the integ- 
rity of the Union. The result of each is the same ; since a State in which, by a 
usurpation of power, the constitutional authority of the Federal Government is 
openly defied and set aside, wants only the form to be independent of the Union. 

The right of a people of a single State to absolve themselves at will, and without 
the consent of the other States, from their most solemn obligations, and hazard the 
liberties and happiness of the millions composing this Union, cannot be acknowl- 
edged. Such authority is believed to be utterly repugnant both to the principles 
upon which the General Government is constituted, and to the objects which it is 
expressly formed to attain. 

Against all acts which may be alleged to transcend the constitutional power of 
the Government, or which may be inconvenient or oppressive in their operation, 
the Constitution itself has prescribed the modes of redress. It is the acknowledged 
attribute of free institutions, that, under them, the empire of reason and law is 
substituted for the power of the sword. To no other source can appeals for sup- 
posed wrongs be made, consistently with the obligations of South Carolina; to no 
other can such appeals be made with safety at any time ; and to their decisions, 
when constitutionally pronounced, it becomes the duty, no less of the public au- 
thorities than of the people, in every case to yield a patriotic submission. 

That a State, or any other great portion of the people, suffering under long and 
intolerable oppression, and having tried all constitutional remedies without the 
hope of redress, may have a natural right, when their happiness can be no other- 
wise secured, and when they can do so without greater injury to others, to absolve 
themselves from their obligations to the Government, and appeal to the last resort, 
needs not, on the present occasion, be denied. 

The existence of this right, however, must depend upon the causes which may 
justify its exercise. It is the ultima ratio, which presupposes that the proper ap- 
peals to all other means of redress have been made in good faith, and which can 
never be rightfully resorted to unless it be unavoidable. It is not the right of the 
State, but of the individual, and of all the individuals in the State. It is the right 
of mankind generally to secure, by all the means in their power, the blessings of 
liberty and happiness ; but when, for these purposes, any body of men have vol- 
untarily associated themselves under a particular form of Government, no portion 
of them can dissolve the association without acknowledging the correlative right 
in the remainder to decide whether that dissolution can be permitted consistently 
with the general happiness. In this view, it is a right- dependent upon the power 
to enforce it. Such a right, though it may be admitted to pre-exist, and cannot 
be wholly surrendered, is necessarily subjected to limitations in aU free govern- 



I 



MESSAGE OF PRESTDETTT JACKSON. 565 

ments, and in compacts of all kinds, freely and voluntarily entered into, and in which 
the interest and welfare of the individual become identified with those of the com- 
munity of which he is a member. In compacts between individuals, however 
deeply they may affect their relations, these principles are acknowledged to create 
a sacred obligation ; and in compacts of civil government, involving the liberties 
and happiness of millions of mankind, the obligation cannot be less. 

Without adverting to the particular theories to which the Federal compact has 
given rise, both as to its formation and the parties to it, and without inquiring 
whether it be merely federal, or social, or national, it is sufficient that it must be 
admitted to bo a compact, and to possess the obligations incident to a compact ; 
to be " a compact by which power is created on the one hand, and obedience ex- 
acted on the other ; a compact freely, voluntarily and solemnly entered into by 
the several States, and ratified by the people thereof, respectively ; a compact by 
which the several States, and the people thereof, I'espectively, have bound them- 
selves to each other, and to the Federal Government, and by which the Federal 
Government is bound to the several States, and to every citizen of the United 
States." To this compact, in whatever mode it may have been done, the people 
of South Carolina have freely and "'^luntarily given their assent : and to the whole 
and every part of it, they are, -ap^u every principle of good faith, inviolably bound. 
Under this obligation they are bound, and should be required to contribute their 
portion of the public expense, and to submit to all laws made by the common con- 
sent, in pursuance of the Constitution, for the common defense and general wel- 
fare, until they can be changed in the mode which the compact has provided for 
the attainment of those great ends of the Government and the Union. Nothing 
less than causes which would justify revolutionary remedy, can absolve the people 
from this obligation ; and for nothing less can the Government permit it to be done 
without violating its own obligations, by which, under the compact, it is bound to 
the other States, and to every citizen of the United States. 

These deductions plainly flow from the nature of the Federal compact, which is 
one of limitations, not only upon the powers originally possessed by the parties 
thereto, but also upon those conferred on the Government, and every department 
thereof. It will be freely conceded that, by the principles of our system, all power 
is vested in the people ; but to be exercised in the mode, and subject to the checks 
which the people themselves have prescribed. These checks are, undoubtedly, 
only different modifications of the same great popular principle which lies at the 
foundation of the whole, but are not, on that account, to be loss regarded or less 
obligatory. 

Upon the power of Congress, the veto of the Executive, and the authority of the 
Judiciary, which is to extend to all cases in law and equity arising under the Con- 
stitution, and laws of the United States made in pursuance thereof, are the obviou3 
checks; and the sound action of public opinion, with the ultimate power of amend- 
ment, is the salutary and only limitation upon the powers of the whole. 

However it may be alleged that a violation of the compact, by the measures of 
the Government, can affect the obligations of the parties, it cannot even be pre- 
tended that such violation can be predicated of those measures until all the consti- 
tutional remedies shall have been fully tried. If the Federal Government exercise 
powers not warranted by the Constitution, and immediately affecting individuals, it 
■will scarcely be denied that the proper remedy is a recourse to the judiciary. Such, 

70 



566 ' APPENDIX. 

undoubtedly, is the remedy for those who deem the acts of Congre;53 laying duties 
and imposts, and providing for their collection, to be unconstitutional. The whole 
operation of such laws is upon the individuals importing the merchandise. A State 
is absolutely prohibited from laying imposts or duties on imports or exports, with- 
out the consent of Congress, and canuot become a party, under these laws, without 
importing in her own name, or wrongfully interposing her authority against them 
By thus interposing, however, she cannot rightfully obstruct the operation of the 
laws upon individuals. For their disobedience to, or violation of, the laws, the 
ordinary remedies through the judicial tribunals would remain. And in a case 
where an individual should be prosecuted for any offense against the laws, he could 
not set up, in justification of his act, a law of the State, which, being unconstitu- 
tional, would therefore be regarded as null and void. The law of a State cannot 
authorize the commission of a crime against the United States, or any other act 
which, according to the supreme law of the Union, would be otherwise unlawful. 
And it is equally clear, that, if there be any case in which a State, as such, is af- 
fected by the law beyond the scope of judicial power, the remedy consists in ap- 
peals to the people, either to effect a change in the representation, or to procure 
relief by an amendment of the Constitution. But the measures of the Government 
are to be recognized as valid, and, consequently, supreme, until these remedies 
shall have been effectually tried; and any attempt to subvert those measures, or 
to render the laws subordinate to State authority, and, afterwards, to resort to 
constitutional redress, is worse than evasive. It would not be a proper resistance 
to " a Government of unlimited powers," as has been sometimes pretended, but 
unlawful opposition to the very limitations on which the harmonious action of the 
Government, and all its parts, absolutely depends. South Carolina has appealed 
to none of these remedies, but, in effect, has defied them all. While threatening 
to separate from the Union, if any attempt be made to enforce the revenue laws 
otherwise than through the tribunals of the country, she has not only appealed in 
her own name to those tribunals which the Constitution has provided for all cases 
in law or equity arising under the Constitution and laws of the United States, but 
has endeavored to frustrate the proper action on her citizens, by drawing the cog- 
nizance of cases under the revenue laws to her own tribunals, specially prepared 
and fitted for the purpose of enforcing the acts passed by the State to obstruct 
those laws, and both the judges and jurors of which will be bound, by the import 
of oaths previously taken, to treat the Constitution and laws of the United States 
in this respect as a nullity. Nor has the State made the proper appeal to public 
opinion, and to the remedy of amendment. For, without waiting to learn whether 
the other States will consent to a convention, or, if they do, will construe or amend 
the Constitution to suit her views, she has, of her own authority, altered the import 
of that instrument, and given immediate effect to the change. In fine, she has set 
her own will and authority above the laws, has made herself arbiter iu her own 
cause, and has passed at once over all intermediate steps to measures of avowed 
resistance, which, unless they be submitted to, can be enforced only by the 
sword. 

In deciding upon the course which a high sense of duty to all the people of the 
United States imposes upon the authorities of the Union, in this emergency, it can- 
not be overlooked that there is no sufficient cause for the acts of South Carolina. 
or for her thus placing in jeopardy the happiness of so many millions of people. 



MESSAGE OF PEESIDEJST T JACKSON". 567 

Misrule and oppression, to •warrant tlie disruption of the free institutions of the 
Union of these States, should be great and lasting, defying all other remedy. For 
causes of minor character, the Government coutd not submit to such a catastrophe 
without a violation of its most sacred obligations to the other States of the Union 
who have submitted their destiny to its hands. 

There is, in the present instance, no such cause, either in the degree of misrule 
or oppression complained of, or in the hopelessness of redress by constitutional 
means. The long sanction they have received from the proper authorities, and 
from the people, not less than the unexampled growth and increasing prosperity 
of so many millions of freemen, attest that no such oppression as would justify or 
even palliate such a resort, can be justly imputed either to the present policy or 
past measures of the Federal Government. The same mode of collecting duties, 
and for the same general objects, which began with the foundation of the Govern- 
ment, and which has conducted the country, through its subsequent steps, to its 
present enviable condition of happiness and renown, has not been changed. Tax- 
ation and representation, the great principle of the American Eevolution, have 
continually gone hand in hand ; and at all times, and in every instance, no tax of 
any kind, has been imposed without their participation ; and in some instances 
which have been complained of, with the express assent of a part of the Ecpre- 
sentatives of South Carolina in the councils of the Government. Up to the present 
period, no revenue has been raised beyond the necessary wants of the country and 
the authorized expenditures of the Government. And as soon as the burden of the 
public debt is removed, those charged with the administration have promptly re- 
commended a corresponding reduction of revenue. 

That this system, thus pursued, has resulted in no such oppression upon South 
Carolina, needs no other proof than the solemn and ofiBcial declaration of the late 
Chief Magistrate of that State, in his address to the Legislature. In that he says, 
that " the occurrences of the past year, in connection with our domestic concerns, 
are to be reviewed with a sentiment of fervent gratitude to the Great Disposer of 
human events ; that tributes of grateful acknowledgment are due for the various 
and multiplied blessings he has been pleased to bestow on our people ; that abun- 
dant harvests, in every quarter of the State, have crowned the exertions of agri- 
cultural labor ; that health, almost beyond former precedent, has blessed our 
homes ; and that there is not less reason for thankfulness in surveying our social 
condition." It would, indeed, be difficult to imagine oppression where, in the so- 
cial condition of a people, there was equal cause of thankfulness as for abundant 
harvests, and varied and multiplied blessings with which a kind Providence had fa- 
vored them. 

Independently of these considerations, it will not escape observation that South 
Carolina still claims to be a component part of the Union ; to participate in the 
national councils, and to share in the public benefits, without contributing to the 
public burdens ; thus asserting the dangerous anomaly of continuing in an associa- 
tion without acknowledging any other obligation to its laws than what depends 
upon her own will. 

In this posture of affairs, the duty of the Government seems to be plain. It in- 
culcates a recognition of that State as a member of the Union, and subjects her to 
itfl authority ; a vindication of the just power of the Constitution : tke presorvatioa 



568 APPENDIX. 

of the integrity of tlie Union ; and the execution of the laws by all constitutional 
means. 

The Constitution, which his oath of oflSce obliges him to support, declares that 
the P]xecutive '• shall take care that the laws be faithfully executed," and in pro- 
viding that he shall, from time to time, give to Congress information of the state 
of the Union, and recommend to their consideration such measures as he shall 
judge necessary and expedient, imposes the additional obligation of recommending 
to Congress such more eflScient provision for executing the laws as may, from time 
to time, be found requisite. 

The same instrument confers on Congress the power not merely to lay and col- 
lect taxes, duties, imposts and excises, to pay the debts, and provide for the com- 
mon defense and general welfare, but " to make all laws which shall be necessary 
and proper for carrying into effect the foregoing powers, and all other powers 
vested by the Constitution in the Government of the United States, or in any de- 
partment or officer thereof ;" and also to provide for calling forth the militia for 
executing the laws of the Union. In all cases similar to the present, the duties of 
the Government become the measure of its powers ; and whenever it fails to exer- 
cise a power necessary and proper to the discharge of the duty prescribed by the 
Constitution, it violates the public trusts not less than it would in transcending its 
proper limits. To refrain, therefore, from the high and solemn duties thus enjoin- 
ed, however painful the performance may be, and thereby tacitly permit the right- 
ful authority of the Government to be contemned, and its laws obstructed by a sin- 
gle State, would neither comport with its own safety, nor the rights of the great 
body of the American people. 

It being thus shown to be the duty of the Executive to execute the laws by all 
constitutional means, it remains to consider the extent of those already at his dis- 
posal, and what it may be proper further to provide. 

In the instructions of the Secretary of the Treasury to the collectors in South 
Carolina, the provisions and regulations made by the act of 1799, and also the fines, 
penalties and forfeitures, for their enforcement, are particularly detailed and ex- 
plained. It may be well apprehended, however, that these provisions may prove 
inadequate to meet such an open, powerful, organized opposition, as is to be com- 
menced after the 1st of February next. 

Subsequently to the date of these instructions, and to the passage of the ordi- 
nance, information has been received, from sources entitled to be relied on, that, 
owing to the popular excitement in the State, and the effect of the ordinance de- 
claring the execution of the revenue laws unlawful, a sufficient number of persons, 
in whom confidence might be placed, could not be induced to accept the office of 
inspector, to oppose with any probability of success, the force which will, no doubt, 
be used when an attempt is made to remove vessels and their cargoes from the 
custody of the officers of the customs ; and, indeed, that it would be impracticable 
for the collector, with the aid of any number of inspectors whom he may be autho- 
rized to employ, to preserve the custody against such an attempt. 

The removal of the custom house from Charleston to Castle Pinckney was deem- 
ed a measure of necessary precaution ; and though the authority to give that di- 
rection is not questioned, it is nevertheless apparent that a similar precaution can- 
not be observed in regard to the ports of Georgetown and Beaufort, each of which, 



MESS AGE OF PRESIDENT JACKSON. 569 

nndcr the present laws, remains a port of entry, and exposed to tlie obstructions 
meditated in tliat quarter. 

In considering the best means of avoiding or of preventing the apprehended ob- 
struction to the collection of the revenue, and the consequences which may ensue, 
it would appear to be proper and necessary, to enable the ofiBcers of the customs 
to preserve the custody of vessels and their cargoes, which, by the existing laws, 
they are required to take, until the duties to which they are liable shall be paid or 
secured. The mode by which it is contemplated to deprive them of 'that custody, 
is the process of replevin, and that of capias in withernam, in the nature of a distress 
from the State tribunals organized by the ordinance. 

Against the proceeding in the nature of a distress, it is not perceived that the 
collector can interpose any resistance whatever ; and against the process of reple- 
vin authorized by the law of the State, he, having no common law power, can only 
oppose such inspectors as he is by statute authorized, and may find it practicable 
to employ ; and these, from the information already adverted to, are shown to be 
wholly inadequate. 
The respect which that process deserves must, therefore, be considered. 
If the authorities of South Carolina had not obstructed the legitimate action of 
the courts of the United States, or if they had permitted the State tribunals to ad- 
minister the law according to their oath under the Constitution, and the regulations 
of the laws of the Union, the General Government might have been content to look 
to them for maintaining the custody, and to encounter the other inconveniences 
arising out of the recent proceedings. Even in that case, however, the process of 
replevin from the courts of the State would be regular and unauthorized. It has 
been decided by the Supreme Court of the United States that the courts of the 
United States have exclusive jurisdiction of all seizures made on land or water for 
a breach of the laws of the United States, and any intervention of a State authori- 
ty, which, by taking the thing seized out of the hands of the United States officer, 
might obstruct the exercise of this jurisdiction, is imlawful; that, in such case, tlie 
court of the United States having cognizance of the seizure, may enforce a re-de- 
Uvery of the thing by attachment or other summary process ; that the question un- 
der such a seizure, whether a forfeiture has been actually incurred, belongs exclu- 
sively to the courts of the United States, and it depends on the final decree whether 
the seizure is to be deemed rightful or tortuous ; and that not until the seizure be 
finally judged wrongful, and without probable cause, by the courts of the United 
Btates, can the party proceed at common law for damages in the State courts. 

But by making it " unlawful for any of the constituted authorities, whether of the 
United States or of the State, to enforce the laws for the payment of duties, and 
declaring that all judicial proceedings which shall be hereafter had in affirmance of 
the contract made with purpose to secure the duties imposed by the said acts, are, 
and shall be, held utterly null and void," she has, in effect, abrogated the judicial 
tribunals within her limits in this respect — has virtually denied the United 
States access to the courts established by their own laws, and declared it unlawful 
for the judges to discharge those duties which they are sworn to perform. In lieu 
of these, she has substituted those State tribunals already adverted to, the judges 
whereof are not merely forbidden to allow an appeal, or permit a copy of their 
record, but are previously sworn to disregard the laws of the Union, and enforce 
those only of South CaroUna; and thus deprived of the function essential to the 



570 APPENDIX. 

judicial character, of inquiring into the validity of the law, and the rigK^ of the 
matter, become merely ministerial instruments in aid of the concerted obstruction 
of the laws of the Union. 

Neitlier the process nor authority of these tribunals, thus constituted, can be 
respected, consistently with the supremacy of the laws, or the rights and security 
of the citizen. If they be submitted to, the protection duc'from the Government 
to its officers and citizens is withheld, and there is, at once, an end, not only to the 
laws, but to the Union itself. 

Against such a force as the sheriff may, and which, by the replevin law of South 
Caralina, it is his duty to exercise, it cannot be expected that a collector can re- 
tain his custody with the aid of the inspectors. In such case, it is true, it would 
be competent to institute suits in the United States courts against those engaged 
in the unlawful proceeding; or the property might be seized for a violation of the 
revenue laws, and, being libelled in the proper courts, an order might be made for 
its redelivery, which would be committed to the marshal for execution. But, in 
that case, the fourth section of the act, in broad and unqualified terms, makes it 
the duty of the sheriff "to prevent such recapture or seizure, or to redeliver the 
goods, as the case may he," " even under any process, order or decrees, or other 
pretext, contrary to the true intent and meaning of the ordinance aforesaid." It 
is thus made the duty of the sheriflf to oppose the process of the courts of the United 
States ; and, for that purpose, if need be, to employ the whole power of the coun- 
ty ; and the act expressly reserves to him all power which, independently of its 
provisions, he could have used. In this reservation, it obviously contemplates a 
resort to other means than those particularly mentioned. 

It is not to be disguised that the power which it is thus enjoined upon the sheriS 
to employ, is nothing less than the posse comitatus, in all the rigor of the ancient 
common law. This power, though it may be used against unlawful resistance to 
judicial process, is, in its character, forcible, and analogous to that conferred upon 
the marshals by the act of 1795. It is, in fact, the embodying of the whole mass 
of the population, under the command of a single individual, to accomplish, by 
their forcible aid, what could not be effected peaceably, and by the ordinary means. 
It may properly be said to be the relict of those ages in which the laws could be 
defended rather by physical than moral force, and, in its origin, was conferred upon 
the sheriffs of England to enable them to defend their country against any of the 
King's enemies when they came into the land, as well as for the purpose of execut- 
ing process. In early and less civilized times, it was intended to include " the aid 
and attendance of all knights and others who were bound to have harness." It 
includes the right of going with arms and militai-y equipment, and embraces larger 
classes and greater masses of population than can be compelled by the laws of 
most of the States to perform militia duty. If the principles of the common law 
are recognized in South Carolina, (and from this act it would seem they are,) the 
power of summoning the^osse comitatus will compel, under the penalty of fine and 
imprisonment, every man over the age of fifteen, and able to travel, to turn out at 
the call of the sheriff, and with such weapons as may be necessary ; and it may 
justify beating, and even killing, such as may resist. The use of the posse comitaim 
is, therefore, a direct application of force, and cannot be otherwise regarded than 
as the employment of the whole militia force of the country, and in an equally ef- 



MESSAGE OF PRESIDED T JACKSON. 571 

ficient form under a different name. No proceeding which resorts to this power, 
to ihe extent contemplated by the act, can be properly denominated peaceable. 

The act of South Carolina, however, does not rely altogether upon this formida- 
ble remedy. For even attempting to resist or obey — though by the aid only of the 
ordinary oflScers of the customs — the process of replevin, the collector and all con- 
cerned are subjected to a further proceeding, in the nature of a distress of their 
personal effects ; and are, moreover, made guilty of a misdemeanor, and liable to 
be punished by a fine of not less than one thousand, nor more than five thousand 
dollars, and to imprisonment not exceeding two years, and not less than six months; 
and even for attempting to execute the order of the court for retaking the proper- 
ty, the marshal, and all assisting, would be guilty of a misdemeanor, and liable to 
a fine of not less than three thousand dollars, nor more than ten thousand, and to 
imprisonment not exceeding two years, nor less than one ; and, in case the goods 
should be retaken under such process, it is made the absolute duty of the sheriff 
to retake them. 

It is not to be supposed that, in the face of these penalties, aided by the power- 
ful force of the county, which would doubtless be brought to sustain the State 
officers, either that the collector would retain the custody in the first instance, or 
that the marshal could summon suSicient aid to retake the property, pursuant to 
the order or other process of the court. 

It is, moreover, obvious that in this conflict between the powers of the officers 
of the United States and of the State, (unless the latter be passively submitted to,) 
the destruction to which the property of the officers of the customs would be ex- 
posed, the commission of actual violence, and the loss of lives, would be scarcely 
avoidable. 

Under these circumstances, and the provisions of the act of South Carolina, the 
execution of the laws is rendered impracticable even through the ordinary judicial 
tribunals of the United States. There would certainly be fewer difficulties, and 
less opportunity of actual collision between the officers of the United States and 
of the State, and the collection of the revenue would be more effectually secured 
— if indeed it can be done in any other way — by placing the custom-house beyond 
the immediate power of the county. 

For this purpose, it might be proper to provide that whenever, by any unlawful 
combination or obstruction in any Si-ate, or in any port, it should become imprac- 
ticable faithfully to collect the duties, the President of the United States should be 
authorized to alter and abolish such of the districts and ports of entry as should be 
necessary, and to establish the custom-house at some secure place within some 
port or harbor of such State ; and, in such cases, it should be the duty of the col- 
lector to reside in such place, and to detain all vessels and cargoes until the duties 
imposed by law should be secured or paid in cash, deducting interest ; that in 
such cases it should be unlawful to take the vessel and cargo from the custody of 
the proper officer of the customs, unless by process from the ordinary judicial tri- 
bunals of the United States ; and that, in case of an attempt otherwise to take the 
property by a force too great to be overcome by the officers of the customs, it 
should be lawful to protect the possession of the officers by the employment of the 
land and naval forces, and militia, under provisions similar to those authorized by 
the 11th section of the act of the 9th of January, 1809. 

This provision, however, would not shield the officers and citizens of the United 



572 APPENDIX. 

States, acting under the laws, from suits and prosecutions, in the tribunals of the 
State, which might thereafter be brought against them ; nor would it protect their 
property from the proceeding by distress ; and it might well be apprehended that 
it would be insufficient to insure a proper respect to the process of the constitu- 
tional tribunals in prosecutions for offenses against the United States, and to pro- 
tect tlie authorities of the United States, whether judicial or ministerial, in the per- 
formance of their duties. It would, moreover, be inadequate to extend the protec- 
tion due from the Government to that portion of the people of South Carolina, 
against outrage and oppression of any kind, who may manifest their attachment, 
and yield obedience to the laws of the Union. 

It may, therefore, be desirable to review, with some modifications betted adapt- 
ed to the occasion, the Gth section of the act of the 3d of March, 1815, which expir- 
ed on the 4th of March, 1817, by the limitation ot that of the 27th of April, 1816 ; 
and to provide that, in any case, where suit shall be brought against any individu- 
al in the courts of the State, for any act done under the laws of the United States, 
he should be authorized to remove the said cause, byp*»tition, into the circuit court 
of the United States, without any copy of the record, s-xxd that the courts should 
proceed to hear and determine the same as if it had been originally instituted there- 
in. And that in all cases of injuries to the persons or property of individuals for 
disobedience to the ordinance, and laws of South Carolina m pursuance thereof, 
redress may be sought in the courts of the United States. It may be expedient, 
also, by modifying the resolution of the 3d of March, 1791, to authorize the mar- 
shals to make the necessary provision for the safe keeping of prisoners committed 
under the authority of the United States. 

Provisions less than these, consisting, as they do, for the mo.«t part, rather of a 
revival of the policy of former acts called for by the existing emergency, than of 
the introduction of any unusual or rigorous enactments, would not cause the laws 
of the, Union to be properly respected or enforced. It is believed these would 
prove inadequate, unless the military forces of the State of South Carolina autho- 
rized by the late act of the Legislature, should be actually embodied and called out 
in aid of their proceedings, and of the provisions of the ordinance generally. Even 
in that case, however, it is believed that no more will be necessary than a few 
iiiodificatious of its terms, to adapt the act of 1795 to the present emergency, as, by 
tliat act, the provisions of the law of 1792 were accommodated to the crisis then 
existing ; and by conferring authority upon the President to give it operition dur- 
ing the session of Congress, and without the ceremony of a proclamation, whenever 
it shall be ofScially made known to him by the authority of any State, pt by the 
courts of the United States, that, within the limits of such State, the laws of the 
United States will be openly opposed, and their execution obstructed, by the ac- 
tual eraploymout of military force, or by any unlawful means whatsoerer, too 
great to be otherwise overcome. 

In closing this communication, I should do injustice to my own feelings no', to ex- 
press my confident reliance upon the disposition of each department of the Gov- 
ernment to perform its duty, and to co-operate iu all measures necessary in the 
present emergency. 

The crisis undoubtedly invokes the fidelity of the patriot and the sagacitj* of the 
statesman, not more iu removLug such portions of the public burden as may ^f aj«- 



MESSAGE OF PRESIDENT JACKSON. 573 

cessary, than in preserving the good order of society, and in the maintenance of 
well-regulated liberty. 

WhiJe a forbearing spirit may, and I trust will, be exercised towards the errors 
of our brethren in a particular quarter, duty to the rest of the Union demands that 
open and organized resistance to the laws should not be executed with impunity. 

The rich inheritance bequeathed by our fathers has devolved upon us the sacred 
obligation of preserving it by the same virtues which conducted thsm through the 
eventful scenes of the Revolution, and ultimately crowned their struggles with the 
noblest model of civil institutions. They bequeathed to us a Government of laws, 
and a Federal Union founded upon the great principle of popular representation. 
After a successful experiment of forty-four years, at a moment when the Govern- 
ment and the Union are the objects of the hopes of the friends of civil liberty 
throughout the world, and in the midst of public and individual prosperity unex- 
ampled in history, we are called to decide whether these laws possess any force, 
and that Union the means of self-preservation. The decision of this question by aa 
enlightened and patriotic people cannot be doubtful. For myself, fellow-citizena, 
devoutly relying upon that kind Providence which has hitherto watched over our 
destinies, and actuated by a profound reverence for those institutions I have so 
much cause to love, and for the American people, whose partiality honored me 
with their highest trust, I have determined to spare no effort to discharge the duty 
which, in this conjuncture, is devolved upon me. That a similar spirit will actuate 
the representatives of the American people, is not to be questioned; and I fervent- 
ly pray that the Great Ruler of nations may so guide your deliberations, and our 
joint measures, as that they may prove salutary examples, not only to the present, 
but to future times ; and solemnly proclaim that the Constitution and the laws are 
supreme, and the Union indissoluble. 

ANDREW JACKSON. 

Washington, January, 1833. 



JOHN BROWN'S PROVISIONAL GOVERNMENT CONSTITU- 
TION. 

Reference is made, in the body of this work, [see pages 537, 528, &c.] 
to the Constitution adopted at the Chatham, C. "W. Convention. Copies 
of this document were found among John Bro?vn's effects at the Kenne- 
dy farm, but, notwithstanding many calls foj: its publication, only a 
partial copy has been permitted the light. We quote it as printed by 
the Virginia authorities : 

PROVISIONAL CONSTITUTION AND ORDINANCES FOR THE PEOPLE OP 
THE UNITED STATES. 

Preamble. — Whereas, Slavery, throughout its entire existence in the United 
States, is none other than the most barbarous, unprovoked and unjustifiable war 
of one portion of its citizens against another portion, the only conditions of which 
are perpetual imprisonment and hopeless servitude, or absolute extermination, in 
utter disregard and violation of those eternal and self-evident truthbset forth ia our 
Declaration of Independence : 

71 



571 APPENDIX. 

Therefore, We, the citizens of the United States, and the oppressed people, who, 
by a recent decision of the Supreme Court, are declared to have no rights which 
the white man is bound to respect, together with all the other people degraded by 
the laws thereof, do, for the time being, ordain and establish for ourselves the fol- 
lowing Provisional Constitution and ordmances, the better to protect our people, 
property, lives and liberties, and to govern our actions. 

Article I. Qualifications of Membership. — All persons of mature age, whether 
proscribed, oppressed and enslaved citizens, or of proscribed and oppressed races 
of the United States, who shall agree to sustain and enforce the Provisional Consti- 
tution and ordinances of organization, together with all minor children of such per- 
sons, shall be held to be fully entitled to protection under the same. 

Art. II. Branches of Government.— ;-The Provisional Government of this organi- 
zation shall consist of three branches, viz.: the Legislative, the Executive and the 
Judicial. 

Art. III. The Legislature. — The Legislative branch shall be a Congress or House 
of Representatives, composed of not less than five, nor more than ten members, 
who shall be elected by all the citizens of mature age and sound mind connected 
with this organization, and who shall remain in ofBce for three years, unless sooner 
removed for misconduct, inability or death. A majority of such members shall 
constitute a quorum. 

Art. IV. Executive. — The Executive branch of the organization shall consist of 
a President and Vice President, who shall be chosen by the citizens or members 
of this organization, and each of whom shall hold his oflSce for three years, unless 
sooner removed by death, or for inability, or for misconduct, 

Art. V. Judicial. — The Judicial branch consists of one Chief Justice of the Su- 
preme Court, and four Associate Judges of the said Court, each of them constituting 
a Circuit Court, They shall each be chosen in the same manner as the President, 
and shall continue in oflSce until their places have been filled in the same manner 
by an election of citizens. 

Art. XIII. to XXV. provide for the trial of the President and other officers, and 
Members of Congress, the impeachment of Judges ; the duties of the President and 
Vice President, the punishment of crimes. Army appointments, salaries, &c., &c. 
These articles are not of special interest, and are therefore omitted. 

Art. XXVI. Treaties of Peace. — Before any treaty of peace shall take full effect, 
it shall be signed by the President, Vice President, Commander-in-Chief, a majori- 
ty of the House of Representatives, a majority of the Supreme Court, and a majori- 
ty of the general ofBcers of the army. 

Art. XXVII. Duty of the Military. — It shall be the duty of the Commander-in- 
Chief, and all the ofiBcers and soldiers of the army, to afford special protection, 
when needed, to Congress, or any member thereof, to the Supreme Court, or any 
member thereof, to the President, Vice President, Treasurer and Secretary of War, 
and to afford general protection to all civil officers, or other persons having a right 
to the same. 

Art. XXVIII. Property. — All captured or confiscated property, and all the pro- 
perty the product of the labor of those belonging to this organization, and of their 
families, shall be held as the property of the whole equally, without distinction, 
and may be used for the common benefit, or disposed of for the same object. And 
any person, officer or otherwise, who shall improperly retain, secrete, use, or need- 



PEOVISIONAL CONSTITUTION-. 575 

lessly destroy such property, or property found, captured or confiscated, belong- 
ing to the enemy, or shall wilfully neglect to render a full and fair statement of 
such property by him so taken or held, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and, on 
conviction, shall be punished accordingly. 

Art. XXIX. Safety or Intelligence Fund. — All money, plate, watches or jewelry 
captured by honorable warfare, found, taken or confiscated, belonging to the ene- 
my, shall be held sacred, to constitute a liberal safety or intelligence fund ; and 
any person who shall improperly retain, dispose of, hide, use or destroy such 
money or other article above named, contrary to the provisions and spirit of this 
article, shall be deemed guilty of theft, and, on conviction thereof, shall be punish- 
ed accordingly. The Treasurer shall furnish the Commander-in-Chief at all times 
with a full statement of the condition of such fund, and its nature. 

Art. XXX. The Commander-in-Chief and the Treasury. — The Commander-in- 
Chief shall have power to draw from the Treasury the money and other property 
of the fund provided for in Article XXIX., but his orders shall be signed also by 
the Secretary of War, who shall keep a strict account of the same, subject to exa- 
mination by any member of Congress or General Gificer. 

Art. XXXI. Surplus of the Safety or Intelligence Fund. — It shall be the duty of 
the Commander-in-Chief to advise the President of any surplus of the Safety or 
Intelligence Fund, and he shall have power to draw the same, his order being also 
signed by the Secretary of State, to enable him to carry ou the provisions of Arti- 
cle XXII. 

Art. XXXn. Prisoners, — No person, after having surrendered himself a prison- 
er, and who shall properly demean himself or herself as such, to any ofiBcer or 
private connected with this organization, shall afterwards be put to death, or be 
subjected to any corporeal punishment, without first having had the benefit of a 
fair and impartial trial ; nor shall any prisoner be treated with any kind of cruelty, 
disrespect, insult or needless severity ; but it shall be the duty of all persons, male 
and female, connected herewith, at all times, and under all circumstances, to 
treat all such prisoners with every degree of respect and kindness that the 
nature of the circumstances will admit of, and insist on a like course of conduct 
from all others, as in fear of the Almighty God, to whose care and keeping we com- 
mit our cause. 

Art. XXXIII. Volunteers. — All persons who may come forward, and shall vol- 
untarily deliver up slaves, and have their names registered on the books of this 
organization, shall, so long as they continue at peace, be entitled to the fullest 
protection in person and property, though not connected with this organization, 
and shall be treated as friends, and not merely as persons neutral. 

Art. XXXIV. Neutrals, — The persons and property of all non-slaveholders wh» 
shall remain absolutely neutral shall be respected as far as circumstances can 
allow of it, but they shall not be entitled to any active protection. 

Art. XXXV. No needless Waste. — The needless waste or destruction of any use- 
ful property or article by fire, throwing open offences, fields, buildings or needless 
killing of animals, or injury of either, shall not be tolerated at any time or place, 
and shall be promptly and peremptorily punished. 

Art. XXXVI. Property Confiscated.^-The entire personal and real property 
of all persons known to be acting, either directly or indirectly, with or for the 
enemy, or found in arms with them, or found wilfully holding slaves, shall be coi*- 



576 APPENDIX. 

flscated and taken, whenev(;r and wherever it may be found, in either Free or 
Slave States. 

Art. XXXVII. Desertion. — Persons convicted, on impartial trial, of desertion 
to the enemy after becoming members, acting as spies, of treacherous surren- 
der of property, arms, ammunition, provisions or supplies of any kind, roads, 
bridges, persons or fortiftcations, shall be put to death, and their entire property 
confiscated. 

Art. XXXVIII. Violation of Parole of Honor. — Persons proved to be guilty of 
taking up arms, after having been set at liberty on parole of honor, or after the 
same to have taken any active part with or for the enemy, direct or indirect, shall 
be put to death, and their entire property confiscated. 

Arts. XXXIX., XL. and XLI. require all labor for the general good, and prohibit 
immoral actions. 

Art. XLII. The Marriage Relation — Schools — The Sabbath. — Marriage relations 
shall be at all times respected, and families shall be kept together as far as possi- 
ble, and broken families encouraged to reunite, and intelligence ofBces shall be 
established for that purpose. Schools and churches shall be established as may 
be, for the purpose of religious and other instruction, and the fii'st day of the week 
filiall be regarded as a day of rest, and appropriated to moral and religious in- 
struction and improvement, to the relief of the suffering, the instruction of the 
young and ignorant, and the encouragement of personal cleanliness ; nor shall any 
person be required on that day to perform ordinary manual labor, unless in ex- 
tremely urgent cases. 

Art. XLIII. To carry Arms openly. — All personsTsnown to be'of good character, 
and of sound mind and suitable age, who are connected with this organization, 
whether male or female, shall be encouraged to carry arms openly. 

Aic. XLIV. No Persons to carry Concealed Weapons. — No person within the 
iiraivs of conquered territory, except regularly appointed policemen, express 
tiScers of army, mail carriers, or other fully accredited messengers of Congress, 
the President, Vice-President, members of the Supreme Court, or commissioned 
oificers of the Army, and those under peculiar circumstances, shall be allowed at 
aur tiii^i; to carry cGx-cealed weapons; and any person not specially authorised so 
to do, who shall be found so doing, shall be deemed a suspicious person, and may 
at once be arrested by any officer, soldier or citizen, without the formality of a 
complaint or warrant ; and may at once be subjected to thorough search, and shall 
»ave his or her case thoroughly investigated, and be dealt with as circumstances 
on proof shall requh-e. 

Art. XLV. Persons to be seized. — Persons living within the limits of territory 
"?!?iv>3n by thffl c?3«~'"-^.':oa.and not connected with this organization, having arms 
..,»-*, ••>ncealed or otherwise, shall be seized at once, or betaken in charge of 

y Bctrse •'.'l^i.iir.t cflScer, and their case thoroughly investigated ; and it shall be 

■oe dtftv ff lil) ^.ftfDTs:;:^ ~ni -cldiei-a, as well as ofiScers, to arrest such parties as are 

ttiiifctt lit lu/s alia the t>reccu]2g &ectiv>as or aiticle, witho'it formaUtjr wf compiair*) 
or warrant ; and they shall >)e placid in charge of some proper ofScer for exami- 
nation, or for safe keeping. 

Art. XLVI. These Articles not for the Overthrow of Government. — The forego- 
ing articles shall not be construed so as in any way to encourage the overthrow of 
any State Government, or of the General Government o*' ^e United Suites, and 



EEPORT OF COMMITT EE. 577 

look to no dissolution of the Union, but simply to amendment and repeal, and our 
flag shall be the same that our fathers fought under in the Eevolution. 

Art. XL VII. No Plurality of Offices. — No two ofiBces specially provided for by 
this instrument shall be filled by the same person at the same time. 

Art. XLVIII. Oath. — Every officer, civil or military, connected with this or- 
ganization, shall, before entering upon the duties of office, make solemn oath 
or affirmation to abide by and support the Provisional Constitution and these 
ordinances. Also, every citizen and soldier, before being recognized as such, shall 
do the same. 

Schedule. — The President of this Convention shall convene, immediately on the 
adoption of this instrument, a Convention of all such persons as shall have 
given their adherence by signature to the Constitution, who shall proceed to 
fill by election all offices specially named in "said Constitution- — the President 
of this Convention presiding aud issuing commissions to such officers elect; 
all such officers being hereafter elected in the manner provided in the body of 
this instrument. 



REPORT OF THE SELECT COMMITTEE (U. S. SENATE) ON 
THE HxiRPER'S FERRY AFFAIR. 

As stated (page 545) the reports of the Committee appointed to in- 
vestigate the Harper's Ferry scheme of John Brown, were presented to 
the Senate June 15th, The majority rejjort, signed by Messrs. Mason, 
Davis and Fitch, was a very lengthy document. Only its conclusion 
need here be cited. We quote : 

Upon the whole testimony, there can be no doubt that Brown's plan was to 
coumience a servile war on the borders of Virginia, which he expected to extend, 
and which he believed his means and resources were sufficient to extend through 
that State and throughout the entire South. Upon being questioned, soon after 
his capture, by the Governor of Virginia, as to his plans, he rather indignantly re- 
pelled the idea that it was to be limited to collecting and protecting the slaves 
nutil they could be sent out of the State as fugitives. On the contrary, he vehe- 
mently insisted that his purpose was to retain them on the soil, to put arms in their 
hands, with which he came provided for the purpose, and to use them as his sol- 
diery. (Pp. 61, 62.) 

This man (Brown) was uniformly spoken of, by those who seemed best to have 
known him, as of remarkable reticence in his habits, or, as they expressed it, 
" secretive." It does not appear that he intrusted even his immediate followers 
with his plans, fully, even after they were ripe for execution. Nor have the com- 
mittee been enabl^ed clearly to trace knowledge of them to any. The only excep- 
tion would seem to be in the instance of the anonymous letter received by the 
Secretary of War in the Summer preceding the attack, referred to in his testimo- 
ny. The Secretary shows that he could get no clue to the writer ; nor were the 
committee enabled in any way to trace him. Considering that the letter was anon- 
ymous, as well as vague and apparently incoherent in its statements, it was not at 
all rpTTiarkable, in the opinion of the committee, th.it it did not arrest the attention 
ol the officer to whom it was addiessed. 



g78 APPENDIX. 

The point chosen for the attack seems to have been selected from the twofold 
inducement of the security afforded the invaders by a mountain country, and the 
large deposit of arms in the arsenal of the United States there situated. It result- 
ed in the murder of three most respectable citizens of the State of Virginia -.vith- 
out cause, and in the like murder of an unoffending free negro. Of the military 
force brought against them, one marine was killed, and one wounded ; whilst 
eight of the militia and other forces of the neighborhood were wounded, with more 
or less severity, in the several assaults made by them. 

Of the list of" insurgents" given in Colonel Lee's report, (fourteen whites and 
five negroes,) Brown, Stevens and Coppic, of the whites, with Shields, Green and 
Copeland, of the negroes, captured at the storming of the engine house, were sub- 
sequently executed in Virginia, after judicial trial ; as were also John E. Cook and 
Albert Hazlett, who at first escaped, but were captured in Pennsylvania and de- 
livered up for trial to the authorities of Virginia^making in all seven thus execut- 
ed. It does not seem to have been very clearly ascertained how many of the 
party escaped. Brown stated that his party consisted of twenty-two in number. 
Seven were executed, ten were killed at the Ferry : thus leaving five to be ac- 
counted for. Pour of these five, it is believed, were left on the Maryland side in 
charge of the arms when Brown crossed the river, and who could not afterwards 
join him ; leaving but one, who, as it would appear is the only survivor of the 
party who accompanied Brown across the bridge, and whose escape is not ac- 
counted for. 

The committee, after much consideration, are not prepared to suggest any legis- 
lation, which, in their opinion, would be adequate to prevent like occurrences in 
the future. The only provision in the Constitution of the United States Afhich 
would seem to import any authority in the Government of the United States lo in- 
terfere on occasions affecting the peace or safety of the States, are found in the 
eighth section of the first article, among the powers of Congress " to provide for 
calling for the militia to execute the laws of the Union, suppress insurrections, and 
repel invasions ;" and in the fourth section of the fourth article, in the following 
words: " The United States shall guaranty to every State in this Union a republi- 
can form of Government, and shall protect each of them against invasion, and, on 
the application of the Legislature or of the Executive, (when the Legislatni-e can 
not be convened,] against domestic violence." The " invasion" here spoken of 
would seem to import an*invasion by the public force of a foreign power, or (if 
not so limited and equally referable to an invasion by one State of another) still it 
would seem that public force, or force exercised under the sanction of acknowl- 
edged political power, is there meant. The invasion (to call it so) by Brown and 
his followers at Harper's Ferry, was in no sense of that character. It was simply 
the act of lawless ruffians, under the sanction of no public or political authority- 
distinguishable only from ordinary felonies by the ulterior end§ in contemplation 
by them, and by the fact that the money to maintain the expedition, and the large 
arm&ment they brought with them, had been contributed and furnished by the 
citizens of other States of the Union, under circumstances that must continue to 
jeopard the safety and peace of the Southern States, and against which Congress 
has no power to legislate. 

K the several States, whether from motives of policy or a desire to preserve the 
peace of the Union, if not from fraternal feeling, do ilot hold it incumbent on them 



REPORT OF COMMITTEE. 579 

after the experience of the country, to guard in future by appropriate legislation 
against occurrences similar to the one here inquired into, the committee can find 
no guaranty elsewhere for the security of peace between the States of the Union. 

So far, however, as the safety of the public property is involved, the committee 
would earnestly recommend that provision should be made by the Executive, or 
if necessary, by law, to keep under adequate military guard the public armories 
and arsenals of the United States, in some way after the manner now practiced at 
the navy yards and forts. 

Before closing their report, the committee deem it proper to state that four per- 
sons summoQed as witnesses, to wit : John Brown, jr., of Ohio, James Redpatli, of 
Massachusetts, Frank B. Sanborn, of Massachusetts, and Thaddeus Hyatt, of New 
York, failing or refusing to appear before the committee, warrants were issued by 
order of the Senate for their arrest. Of these, Thaddeus Hyatt only was arrested ; 
and on his appearance before the Senate, «till refusing obedience to the suminons 
of the committee, he was, by order of the Senate, committed to the jail of the Dis- 
trict of Columbia. In regard to the others, it appeared^ by the return of the mar- 
shal of the northern district of Ohio, as deputy of the Sergeant-at-Arms, that John 
Brown, jr., at first evaded the process of the Senate, and afterwards, with a num- 
ber of other persons, armed themselves to prevent his arrest. The marshal further 
reported in his return that Brown could not be arrested unless he was authorized 
in like manner to employ force. Sanborn was arrested by a deputy of the Ser- 
geant-at-Arms, and afterwards released from custody by the Judges of the Su- 
preme Court of Massachusetts oa habeas corpus. Eedpath, by leaving his State, and 
otherwise concealing himself, successfully evaded the process of the Senate. 



^JTHEAOCNOWLipGED^ST^^ 
PROSPECTUS 

OP 

HISTORY 

(CIVIL, POLITICAL. AND MILITAR.') 

OF THE 

SOUTHERN REBELLION, 

COMPKEHENDIKG, ALSO, At.T. IMPORTANT StATB PAPERS, (CONFEDERATE AND FEDERAL,) ALL ORDI- 

MASCBS OP Secession, Proceedings of Congress, (Rebel and Federal,) Remark- 
able Speeches, &c. ; together with Official Retorts op CoiaLANDEES, 
Army and Navy Statistics, Maps, &o. 

BY OI?;^IIL.IL.E J. VIOTOU, 
A-atTlor of " History- of Axiaerican. Conspiracies," &c. 

J: D. T QRREY. Publisher. 

To be completed In Three Volumes, Super-Royal Octavo. 

BEAUTIFULLY ILLUSTRATED WITH STEEL ENGRAVINGS. MAPS, 

&C., PREPARED EXPRESSLY FOR THIS WORK BY JOHN 

ROGERS, AND OTHER FIRST-CLASS ARTISTS. 



"Voliiines One a.ii«l T>vo iio"v^ ready. 

This truly NATIONAL WORK (characterized by a leading Jour- 
nal a3 the " Paragon of Histories,") has now taken its place in literature 
as the History, par excellence, of the Great Eebellion. It has received 
(as will be seen by reference to the letters and notices subjoined) the 
endorsement of the leading men and the leading journals of the coun- 
try. It is commended by those most qualified to judge, as such a Re- 
cord of the Rise, Progress, and Results of the War for the Union as 
EVERY INTELLIGENT CITIZEN SHOULD POSSESS. 

As each volume co»tains more letter-press than any two volumes of other pro- 
fessed "Histories" now offered to the public, it zuill be perceived thai this Great 
Work, on the score of fullness and completeness, mil challenge all comparison. 

The Entire History will be comprised in three Super-Royal octavo volumes, 
of about 600 pages each, beautifully printed, in double columns, from specially 
prepared type. The amount of matter in each volume is equivalent to tho con- 
tents of six ordinary dollar books ! Thus, in the three volumes the author will 
have ample space to consider every event fully and satisfactorily, should the war 
di-ag its slow length along through another year. 

THE WOKK CAN ONLY BE HAD OP THE CANVASSEK. IT IS NOT SOLD BY " THE 
TRADE." ALL WHO WISH TO BECOIIE POSSESSED OF IT SHOULD AVAIL THEMSELVES OP 
THE FIRST PROPOSITION OP THE AGENT. 

Address Correspondence to 

13 Spruce Street, E. J, 



LIST OP STEEL ENGEAVHTCtS OT VOLTTJOIS I ATH) H OE VIGTOI 3 
EISTOEY OF THE SOUTHEM EEBELLION. 
VOLXJIWCE I. 
Etle Page. — Bombardhent of Fort Sttiitee. 
PORTEAITS. 
Gen. Halleck, Gen. Burnside, Gen. MoDo'steli., 

" McClellan, " Heintzelsian, And. Johnson, 

" Hooker, " Soiener, Robt. ANDEuiiOM 

" SiGEL, ■' Banks, J. Holt, 

" John A. Dix. 

voltjm;e II. 

Title. — Bombardment op Fort Sumter, 

Destruction op Gosport Navy Yard, 

Bombardment of the Port Royal Forts, 

Battle of Wilson's Creek and Death op General Lton. 





PORTRAITS. 






Pbes. Lincoln, 


Sec. Welles, 


Gen. 


McCooK, 


Sec, Seward, 


Gen. Scott, 


'< 


Wallace, 


" Chase, 


" McClernand, 


«' 


Sherman, 


" Smith, 


" Rosecrans, 


« 


Thomas, 


" Bates, 


" Grant, 


" 


Prentiss. 


" Cameron, 


" Curtis, 







Maps. — McDowell's Official Map of the Plan of the Battle of Bull Run. 

Map of Wilson's Creek, showing the relative positions and dispositiona 
of forces. 
Volume III will contain a large number of Battle Scenes, Portraits, &c. 



Letters of Distinguished Citizens 

TO THE PUBLISHER OF THE HISTORT, (CIVH., POLITICAL 
AND MILITARY,) OF THE SOUTHERN REBELLION. 

Letter of Gov. E. D. Morgan, of New York. 

Sir : I have examined the second number of your " History of the Southern Rebellion," and I 
take pleasure in saying that it fully justifies the favorable opinion I had formed of the work 
from the first number. 

It is gratifying to know that competent hands have undertaken the delicate task of separating 

the true historical material from the immense mass ef printed matter which now flnds its way, 

through a thousand channels, to the public, and presenting it in a connected form convenient 

for present reference. Your publication, it seems to me, unites this with many other excelloucies. 

I am, very respectfully yours, E. D. MORGAN. 

Letter of Ma^i.-Gen. Jchn A. Diz. 

Dear Sir : I have exammed the first number of your History of the Rebellion in the Soutnem 
States, and I consider it a publication of great value. Prepared immediately after the evsnts 
and occurrences it is intended to record, no important paper or essential fact is likely to be inst; 
and I sincerely hope tbe encouragement it receives from the public will ensure its continuance 
to the termination of the contest. I am, respectfully yom's, JOHN. A. DE. 

Letter of Gov. John A. Andrew, of Massaclmsetts, 

Dear Sm : I thank you for calling my attention to your history of the rise and progress of tlie 
Southern Kebellion. I have examined the pages of the first monthly part with some care, and 
have formed a very favorable opinion, not only of the plan of the work, but of the mauuur in 
which it is to be executed. Such a condensation of facts, and presentation of official docunnnls, 
relating to the present war, cantiot fail to be of great present interest and utility, and in future 
years will be invaluable to all who will wish to study the details of the great conspiracy against 
constitutional liberty and the rights of humanitv. 

Tours very truly, JOHN A. ANDREW. 



Letter of Hon. Benj. Wade, of Ohio. 

Sm : I have examined with care, the first four numbers of your history of " The Southern 
Bebellion:" and so far as I can judge, it contains a lucid exposition of the causes which led to 
this Rebellion, in the order in which they occurred, and, without going into tedious details it 
has omitted nothing which bears essentially upon the subject. I believe it to bo just such a 
srork as the timns demand, and it shouli' be in the hands of every one who wishrs to have a 
thorough understanding of this grtal Bebellion, and the motives which prompted its leaders to 
uD««g^ ia it, RespectfuUy yours, B. F. WADE. 



Letter of Gov. A, G. Curtin, of Pennsylvania. 
Dear Sir : My engagements bave not permitted more than a hasty glance at -your " History 
gf the Sduthern Rebellion," but I am very much pleased with its general plan and the style ot 
Its puffclication. Such a work deserves, and, I think, cannot fail to meet with a gteat circu- 
lation. Very respectfully yours, A. G. CUKTIN. 

Letter of Hon. Edward Everett, of Boston. 
Dear Sir : I have looked cursorily over the first number of the monthly edition of the history 
of" The Southern Rebellion," and formed a favoi-able opinion of the plan and exiX-ution of the 
work. Respectfully yours, EDWARD EVERETT. 

Letter of Hon. N. P. Tallmadge. 

Dear Sir : 1 have read with attention seven numbers of your history of " The Southern Re- 
bellion." The plan of the work is admirable; the matter is selected with much care, and the 
narrative by which it is connected displays great judgment and ability. As a book of reference 
it is almost indispensable to the professional man and the statesman; and as a mere history it 
ought to be in the bands of every loyal citizen of the United States. There can nowhere else be 
found so true and succinct an account of this, the most stupendous, the most causeless, as well 
u the most infamous Rebellion ever known in the annals of the world. 

Very truly yours, N. P. TALLMADGE. 



Letter of Hon. John Sherman, of Ohio. 

Sir : I have carefully read the first number of your history of the Rise and Progress of the 
present Rebellion. I heartily approve of your undertaking. 

A carefully prepared record of the events connected with the present war will not only be of 
value now, but wiU be an Important magazine of facts for future historians. The history of this 
rebeUiou will hereafter be read with as much interest as, and will be regarded as of even great- 
er importance than that of the Pi-ench Revolution. 

Your work has already been of great servibo to me as a text-book, for dates of important 
events. Your Historical Summary is alone worth more than the whole cost of your book. 
Every intelligent reader will have occasion to refer to it to revive bis recollection. 

I therefore trust that you will receive such a liberal share of patronage as will justify you in 
executmg your plan. I am, very truly yours, JOHN SHERMAN. 

Letter of Gov. Wm. A. Buckingham, of Connecticut. 

Sir : I am in receipt of two num()ers of " The History of the Southern Rebellion," which pre- 
sent a concise view of events connected with our political and governmental history as they are 
now passing. I think it will prove a valuable record for future reference. 

Yours respectfully, WM. A. BUCKINGHAM. 



Letter of Gov. Erastus Fairbanks, of Vermont. 
Dear Sir : I have received the first and second monthly numbers of yow " History of the 
Southern Rebellion," and have much pleasure in recommending it as a work of invaluable im- 
portance to every American citizen. 

The publication is timely, and the design excellent. It is thus far a graphic and truthful re- 
cord of the transactions and events preceding and connected with the rebellion, a convenient 
manual for present reference, and an important text for future historians. 

Respectfully yours, ERASTUS FAIRBANKS, 



Letter of Gov. N. S. Berry, of Wev? Hampshire. 
Dear Sir : By your politeness I have received the first and second numbers of your History 
of the Rebellion in the Southern States, and have devoted such attention to the work us my 
many duties at present will permit. I am deeply impressed with the importance, style and ex-' 
ecution of the same. As a history and text-book of dates of important events it must meet with 
great favor by an intelligent people. I hope you^wiU meet with such patronage and support as 
wm warrant you in the full prosecution of the work. 

Very respectfully, N. S. BERRY. 

Letter of Hon. S. S. Cox, of Ohio. 
Dear Sir : I have examined, with some critical care, the first number of your " Rebellion 
History." During the pendency of the matter described, and in the midst of the scenes por- 
trayed, I was a witness of what has transpired and which you have placed in enduring record. 
I think the design as patriotic and valuable, as the execution is creditable and truthful. In ar- 
rangement, style and matter, you certainly have been very felicitous. 

Yours, &c., S. S. COX. 



Letter of Gov. Washburne, of Maine. 
Dear Sir : I thank you for a CQpy of the first number of the history of " The Southern 
Rebellion." 

From a rapid examination of it, I am sure it will bo an invaluable record of the most import- 
ant era in our national history. No intelligent citizen can afford to be without it. 
Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 

J. WASHBURN, Jr. 



Letter of Prosper M. Wetmore. 

Dear Sir : I wish to express to you how much pleasure I have derived from reading your 
Hhtory of the Rebellion. As a book of reference it is of great value to all who have occasion to 
fix dates and collate facts in connection with the rebellion. 

I am, respectfully yours, PROSPER M. WHITMORE. 



Frmn the Liverpool (England) K>aily Post. 

• * • Mr. Victor has availed himself of every species of authority, official and non-offlcia!» 
and lias thweby shown himself determined to get at the truth. An onliiiarv man would have 
broken down under the task— whilst many, if asked to perform the work," would have beea 
afrai.l to undertake it. **•»* •••**«•« 

• • * But, by means of an indomitable industry and a rare facility of analysis, Mr. Victor 
has ovorcnrao all these difficulties, .and produced a work of great value to his cotcuiporaries, and 
one which will earn for him the thanks of the future historical student. 

« • * The volume is one of those which ought to be at the elbow of all who may be writing 
about the troubles of the Union, and in the possession of all who desire to bo well posted in tk« 
facts of the war. 

The Agent of Victor's History of the Southern Rebellion will remain in "Windham County a few 
weeks longer. We notice among his list of subscribers the names of several educated men, who 
had already furnished themselves with Abbott's History, but subscribed for Victor'.?, in order 
to obtain a more complete work. We can assure our readers that this history is no humbug. 
Any one who wants a correct statement of facts concerning our great political struggle, cannot 
do better than to purchase it. — Bellows Falls {Vt.) Times. 

This is the first approach to a solid and permanent History of the War now shaking the foun- 
dation of our Republic; and if the flrst volume, which is completed, be a criterion of the two 
that are to follow, we may look for the thorough and " comprehensive" work which is prom- 
ised by the titlo-pags and guaranteed by the reputation of its author as a reliable and pains- 
taking historical writer. The plan of the History is admirable— embracing a scope of inquiry 
and field of detail which must make it a compendium of causes as well as of effects, as devel- 
oped in the Rebellion and its forerunning events.— A'eiw York Weekly. 

We have to say now as we said when the first number was issued — it is well worth reading 
and preservation, furnishing as it does an impartial and complete compend of all the prominent, 
and muny of the minor, but important events of the rebellion. — Wl^eeling (Va.) Daily Press. 

It is not a mere jotting down of isolated facts or newspaper paragraphs, but a clear state- 
ment, in elegant, plain and forcible language of the eventful struggle, perfectly reliable, and in- 
tensely interesting. Every patriotic citizen should procure this publication, and thus havo at 
hand a perfect record of the doings of this civil war, condensed, accessible and reliable.— Peo- 
ple'.? Press, Kingston, IV. T. 

Far beyond its promises, this History of the War is a work everybody should secure. It is 
the most important compendium of facts and occurrences touching this rebellion that will ever 
appear, as it is complete and perfect. — Paterson (N. J.) Guardian. 

This really excellent work has taken ns by surprise. Wc scarcely thought it pos.?ibIe that 
any one could weave, from the tangled web of current events, such a connected and well-digest- 
ed narrative of the great rebellion as is contained in these pages. History here treads in the 
steps of events. We find everything, as far as the numbers carry us, arranged in order, full 
and complete. — Weekly (Michigan) Clarion. 

The evidences of careful and competent workmanship in «hls history, warrant us in com- 
mending it to public favor. The tone is excellent, and the results stated with calmness and 
fairness.— Pttts6«j-^ Daily Gazette. 



NOTBCES OF THE RELIGIOUS PRESS. 

Mr. Victor has rare qualifications to write the History of the Rebellion, and he has brought 
them all into requisition in preparing this work. Candor, industry, love of truth, a neat and 
graphic style, a just sense of order and arrangement, accurate discrimination, sound judgment, 
a full acquaintance with tiie political history of the country, especially for the last twenty-five 
years, and a patriotic spirit, mark his pages. Although wc were prepared to expect much from 
Mr. Victor's pen, we confess that for clearness, accuracy, and completeness, this work cxceoda 
our expectations. We know of no more reliable reference book, or fascinating narrative of the 
current war and its causes, near and remote. — IV. Y. Christian Advocate and Journal. 

This is a much more elaborate and able work than Putnam's "Rebellion Record." Starting 
at a later period, it has the advantage of time for investigation, consideration and analysis, and 
is more a product of the brain and pen, and less of the scissors. The work is done fro: i a 
thorough Union standpoint, and so well done that the result is very convenient and useful. It is 
well printed with catch-notes in the margin, and every way bids fair to be a truly dignified and 
vali.able history of this great struggle.— J5os<om (Mass.) Congregationalist. 

The work is valuable, as collecting in a body the materials for a proper appreciation of the 
History of the Great Southern Rebellion. It is prepared with commendable judgment and care. 
Brovmson's Review (Itoman Cdtholic.) 

It is not necessary for us to say anything further in commendation of this excellent work. 
Every number increases in valueli and as a detail of the facts and incidents of the Rebellion, it 
has all the interest of a tale. — Philadelphia Banner and Covenant. 

Those who wish a full, judicious, and well-digested statement of the rebellion and incidenta 
connected with it, will do well to procure it. — Presbyterian Witness, Cincinnati. 

Truthful and thorough— the patrons of the work will be supplied with a correct history.— 
Christian Secretary, Hartford, Conn. 

One of the most enticing books to read, as well as one of the moSt valuable to preserve. Wo 
trust the enterprise will receive the consideration it so richly deserves at the hands of every in- 
telligent citizen. — Banner of Light, Boston. 

•We are greatly pleased with its comprfhensive scope and the accuracy and faithfulness with 
which the work has been entered upon. — New York Evangelist. 

Rich in material, entertaining in construction.— Pii(«6ttr^ Christian Admertis«r and , 



